The Jenova Project
by Mr. Ite
Summary: This is being made into a web series with a budget of a half million US dollars. Skip to the last chapter for a message from the author.
1. Foreward to Book 1: The Mercenary

First of all, if you have never played a Final Fantasy, and aren't planning to, this is the book for you.

**Disclaimer: This text is rated 'M' for mature subject matter up to and including heavy profanity, sexual and adult themes and grotesque violence.**

It seems so obvious now to think that video games can tell great stories - that the medium is an innovative, unique way of getting us engaged in deep, emotional, literary works of art. There are very few people who would argue with that now. Fifteen years ago, when games like _Final Fantasy VII_ were coming out, this wasn't the case. There was a huge negative stigma surrounding games - that they were frivolous, childish, brain-rotting things. Perhaps in some dark corner of the world this mindset still exists. I hope not.

Ten years ago, when I wrote the first draft of this novelization, it was in direct response and challenge to that mindset. _Final Fantasy VII_ changed my idea of how video games worked - hell, how _stories_ worked. I felt a desperate need to share that story with those whose pre-concieved notions of video games prevented them from enjoying a story. This is the result.

I still believe that _Final Fantasy VII_ was to video games what _Watchmen_ was to comics, in terms of elevating an untapped medium to unseen artistic heights. I have a kind of adaptation-guilt associated with this book, in that what I've always wanted to do is share the story, and in my opinion the best way to do that would be to get people to play the game. But alas, I can't, because some people hate video games, and some people hate _old_ video games. But believe me when I say that as enjoyable as I try to make this book, I will never be able to recreate the experience of playing the game, just as any _Watchmen_ movie will never be able to replace the experience of reading. But I'll be damned if I stop trying! Because of that this text has never stopped changing, adapting and living. I am currently working on a complete second draft to replace the old chapters. For the up-to-date status on this novelization, please see my user profile.

The book you are about to read does not require your knowledge of anything game-related. It was designed as a stand-alone product that could be enjoyed by anyone. It only requires a rudimentary handle on the English language (I am from Canada, so forgive the spelling differences). In fact, it is probably preferable that you _don't_ know anything about the game, and I will explain why:

It's probably no secret that the _Compilation of Final Fantasy VII_ (aka the recently made sequels and prequels) change things about the original story. This first draft of this novelization was written_ before_ those sequels and prequels were released. There is information in this text that contradicts information in the prequels and sequels. Apologies if you are upset, high-fives if I did a better job than the prequels did. I myself being not a fan of the 'Compilation' I will not be changing the story to fit this new canon.

If you've made it this far, you are ready to begin your journey!

I hope you enjoy this story, this world, this journey as much as I did. If you like it, hate it, or have constructive criticism, please leave a review. If you think it is worth sharing, please share it with your friends.

I would like to acknowledge the following people: For her endlessly thorough and thoughtful reviews, , without whom this new draft simply would not exist. Zhang Sizheng for her support, editing and ass-kicking. The fantastic community over at the Genesis Awards, who fostered me as a writer and as a fan. The folks over at The Lifestream who have dissected this game sometimes more thoroughly than I have. The original creative team who wrote this story and brought it to life, and most of all Mom, for whom the first draft was written.

Take care!

-Mr. Ite


	2. Book 1: Chapter 1

** T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

"There are no vacations for heroes. The world will never stop needing them." - _Sephiroth_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Sector 1**

Sector 1's railway cut below street level like a trench. It was nearly five metres deep at the northernmost ridge of the city, sloping downwards as it approached the southern tip of the Sector – the centremost point of Midgar. After that, it slipped into the tunnel that led below the Plate.

An enormous steam clock marked the north end of the line. The clock was older than the city itself. Copper hands. Hand-blown glass. No trace of digital display. The steam was generated by a mako engine – of course. But the aesthetic was still very old-world. Five brass whistles adorned the top and at noon all five of them chimed at once. The two attendants at North Station's platform always jumped when the whistles went off. Thursday was no exception.

The day was black as always. The Shield kept everything out of Midgar, even the sun. So far, their shift had been four hours of nothing. Only cargo trains came this far north and the first one of the day wasn't due until the bare afterlunch. It was quiet – for Midgar. There was still the din of car engines, and the thrum of the mako reactor, and the occasional train whistle, and the sticky sound of tires on the blackbrick roads, and the twenty-four hour pedestrian traffic. Midgar noise. But Sector 1 lacked the industry of Sector 3, and the tourism of its neighbouring Sector 8, and the ongoing construction of the distant Sector 6. The permanent clouds that comprised the Shield absorbed most of the racket from the other sectors, leaving Sector 1 relatively placid.

Until noon. The whistles hissed five discordant tones. The attendants sprang upright. One of them jolted so violently that the crimson draping on his cap whipped against his skin. The other reached instinctively for his right hip, expecting to find a pistol there. But it had been over five years since the war ended, and over two since they were allowed to carry firearms.

Laughter echoed into the trench from above the wall behind them. The attendants swiveled to look. Up on street level, two Military Policemen leered down at the platform. Their faces were obscured by their blue cloth masks, but they were shaking their heads. Since the war ended, MPs had been more common on the streets of Midgar. Patrolling. Keeping the peace. MPs were still allowed to carry semi-auts – the guns were slung casually over their shoulders.

The MPs moved along, eventually. Their laughs and taunts were muffled by their masks.

The distant train whistled. The attendants forced themselves to ignore the MPs and looked down the railway, towards the entrance to the tunnel. They liked watching the train slide onto the Plate from beneath. They liked how the dust exploded out of the tunnel with it – as if the world underneath the Plate was trying to follow the train to safety.

It came with its blinding headlight angled up towards the Shield, curving onto the flat track along the trench. Exhaust pipes wound around the exterior of the train, and the tops of the cars were obscured by the steam it coughed up. The train came without fail at 12:05 every Thursday carrying cargo from below up to the Plate. The attendants would have thought the world under the Plate was uninhabitable, but the trains had to come from somewhere. Knowing that people lived underneath Midgar wasn't a particularly comforting thought, but it was fascinating as hell.

The bulking steel vessel slid towards the end of the trench with a screeching of brakes and a scattering of orange sparks. It hissed to a stop just as one of the copper hands on the steam clock snapped to II.

The doors to the train opened, but no one stepped onto the platform.

Normally, the station would fill with bawdy workers, crates, and dollies. But the train sounded empty. The first attendant made a move to look inside, but he noticed movement on top of the train.

Before he could shout a warning someone leapt onto him.

A boot clubbed his temple, and the weight of the man crumpled the attendant. His shoulderblade cracked against the floor. All the air left his body.

His attacker stumbled but leapt off of him. The attendant could only make out a red bandana.

He tried to get up, but another attacker grabbed him from behind. He was thrown into the side of the train. His head hit an exhaust pipe. Suddenly the world was on its side. He felt warm blood drenching his neck.

He saw the other attendant on the ground. There were three attackers, all in red bandanas. One of them – the girl – was already leaving through the north exit.

A giant black-skinned man charged out of the front car of the train. He barked some orders – the attendant couldn't make them out, he just heard a low and gruff booming underneath the ringing in his ears. The others ran ahead.

Another figure came from the top of the train. A blonde male. Lithe and fast. But he didn't jump. He cartwheeled.

The attendant tried to raise his head, but his neck felt broken.

The last man had a sword on his back. The attendant kept his eyes open, and hope started to return. A sword was a gentleman's weapon. Only SOLDIERs used them. The cavalry had arrived.

The way the giant and the SOLDIER looked at each other, the attendant expected them to attack. A moment passed, and the attendant thought that perhaps they were old enemies. Another moment passed and still no one moved.

The ringing began to subside, and it was only then that he heard them talking – _talking_ – to each other.

The dark man huffed. "I told you, this area is clear."

"I heard you."

"So get a move on."

"No."

"You jes' gonna wait for the Shinra army to come down on our heads, s' that it?"

"Something like that."

"Shoulda known it. Goddamn saboteur."

"Get down!"

The SOLDIER pushed the giant into the wall.

A spray of bullets scattered where they had been standing. The two MPs, the laughers, had arrived at the platform.

The rogue drew his sword, arcing it over his head. The blade was as thick as the cross guard, a brutish thirty centimetres, and built like a giant kitchen knife. It would be impossible for normals to wield it.

The MPs were stunned for a moment. SOLDIERs did not – _could_ not – go rogue. That moment was all it took. The traitor was upon them, whirling the blade around with the ease of a twig. The MPs fell apart before firing another shot.

The platform fell silent again. The attendant struggled to stay conscious.

The ex-SOLDIER clipped the sword back onto the magnetic harness on his back and looked at the giant expectedly. "Don't tell me how to beat my own kind."

The attendant's eyelids slid shut. His hearing slowly faded.

The giant grunted. "C'mon, newcomer. Follow me."


	3. Book 1: Chapter 2 and 3

** T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Mako Reactors  
**

Jessie had her hands so deep inside the console that she couldn't see them. She had to feel the wires. Her Braille was rusty, but she remembered which patterns mattered. She'd always preferred Braille to reading. Looking at letters didn't give them enough shape.

"Did you see that?" Biggs asked behind her.

"I've kind of been busy here," Jessie smirked back at him. He watched down both sides of the street for movement. Meanwhile, Wedge looked at the gate nervously. Jessie sighed. "I'm workin' on it, Wedge." She went back to her wire-work.

Barret's footsteps rose over the Midgar noise. Biggs inhaled loudly. The wire in Jessie's hands was the auxiliary alarm power. She ran her fingers over the description again to make sure. She cut it.

"Somethin' you're forgetting to tell us, Barret?" Biggs asked behind her.

"I remember tellin' you not to move in a group."

"That mercenary you found. His choice of weaponry didn't seem, _strange_, to you?"

"No stranger than mine."

"Bullshit. He brought a sword to a gunfight, and _won_. Normal people can't do that."

"Why would I hire normal people?"

"They're less dangerous than hiring a SOLDIER."

Jessie almost dropped the cutters.

Wedge turned around to face them. "SOLDIER?"

Barret grunted.

Biggs asked, "Wanna explain why we didn't need to know that?"

"Cause you'd wet your pants jes' like this, that's why. He used to do. Now he don't. Clear? Havin' someone who knows the enemy is smart."

Biggs sighed. "That doesn't make it wise."

"Don't need y'all to be _wise_ with me. Need y'all to move. Need y'all to get this done. Save _wise_ for the after party."

Jessie could hear more footsteps behind her and she knew it was the mercenary. Her hands trembled but she made herself steady them enough for her fingers to read the next wire.

Biggs said, "Thanks for your help back there."

Silence.

Biggs said again. "Didn't catch your name."

"Cloud."

"Cloud eh? I'm–"

"I don't care."

Barret stepped in. "Enough of this. Jessie, how we doin?"

Jessie had found her wire. "This is it." She cut it.

The huge iron gate before them slid open. Jessie brought her hands out of the console and stood up.

"Meet on the bridge in front of the reactor," Barret ordered.

Barret and Cloud exchanged more words at the gate. The rest ran through into the Shinra-only area of Sector 1. Biggs and Wedge split off from her, and she moved as far away from the mercenary as she thought she could get.

The word 'soldier' had been a simple word when she was a kid. She liked the shape of it, especially in Braille, the way it seemed to swoop and cut.

:`:. | `: .''. |-

Like a dancer.

When Shinra Inc. started the SOLDIER program, during the war, the word changed. It became a brand. Now Jessie could only think of Shinra when she heard it. It didn't dance anymore. It made her afraid.

She ran north through the shadows until she reached the high wall along the rim of Midgar. She didn't dare walk right alongside the rim – that was asking to be caught. She kept her distance, but followed it west, along its slight curve, until she reached the northwest corner of Sector 1. The rim wall rose twice as high as the sector wall, and it continued curving beyond the edge, trapping all eight sectors inside its circumference.

A portico in the sector wall opened onto a long causeway. Jessie stepped onto the metal grating, and the steel in her boots clicked.

Between sectors, there were chasms.

The causeway spanned the entire chasm, leading into Sector 8. Wedge stood at the opposite portico, looking down off the bridge into the mist. Between them, the causeway featured a T-junction. The new path led north towards the mako reactor at the rim.

Wedge waved at her as she walked. She waved back.

Jessie reached the junction. She marveled at the reactor. Even from the causeway, Jessie couldn't see the whole thing. It rose all the way up from the Planet surface, its base obscured by fog. Jessie stood fifty metres above ground, but she wasn't even half-way up the structure. A huge number 01 loomed above the yellow-trimmed entrance, and above that, the red-diamond-on-white-square logo of Shinra. Brown-green embers blasted from the yawning, volcanic smoke stack, feeding murky smoke into the Shield. The sound the reactor made was a faint, low hiss, like exhaling.

Barret arrived on the bridge behind her. He also gazed down the length of the chasm, but he was looking the other way.

"Lookee this way," Barret said. His voice was softer than it had been all day. Jessie looked.

Southward, the chasm led to the centre of Midgar, where all eight sectors met. There, the enormous Shinra Headquarters rose above the city like a white mountain.

"It reminds me of those doughballs you sometimes get in the middle of a pizza," Jessie said.

Barret raised an eyebrow at her.

"What?" she asked. "You don't know what I'm talking about? What, do you only ever get those plastic table-like things?"

"I dunno, I don't eat fancy food."

Barret rested his arms on the rail of the causeway. Jessie often tried to avert her gaze from Barret's right arm. Aside from being enormous and covered in tattoos, like the left, Barret's right forearm had been replaced with a mech contraption – a gatling gun, grafted to the dark skin below the elbow. He didn't catch her staring, as he had when they had met.

Cloud brushed past them and walked into the reactor. Biggs and Barret were hot on his heels.

Wedge stayed behind, securing their escape route into Sector 8. He had a bandolier full of grenades and a pistol. Jessie said a quick prayer to no god in particular and ran into the reactor.

Jessie found the inside of the reactor less extravagant than the outside. The room was small and thin. Barret, Biggs, and Cloud had to stand single file. On the wall beyond them, an introductory video about the benefits of mako energy occupied a wall-to-wall screen.

"The Planet's fulla mako energy," Barret said over the canned audio of the video. "People use it every day, but—"

"I'm not here for a lecture," Cloud shrugged.

Barret prickled visibly, and Jessie swore she saw Cloud smile a little.

Biggs looked at the door to the next room. He motioned for Jessie to come near. "Looks like this needs your wristy."

The wristy had been of her own design. Handheld hacking devices were hardly original, but she had banded it to her forearm with some scrap metal and cloth, and was quite proud of it.

Within seconds, the wristy had entered a dummy code into the door. It hissed open.

Barret charged gun-arm first into the next room. Cloud bolted through behind him and checked the corners of the room while Barret slogged to a stop in the middle.

The room was emptied of persons, but the bulky panels along the walls still purred with life. Biggs slid into the room and began monitoring the wall of screens.

"Where are the workers?" Jessie asked. "Alerted to us?"

"Security cameras," Biggs motioned at the screens. "They saw us coming, that's for sure, but it doesn't look like they alerted anyone. Look here, workers in the rest of the reactor are just going about their business."

Jessie eyed a display of a corridor. Men in lab coats strode beneath the cameras' gaze, with clipboards and sometimes goggles.

"No alarms tripped," Jessie thought aloud. "But the men in this room are gone."

Barret huffed. "Mebbe it's tea time."

"Maybe they saw us coming and didn't give two shits about anyone else," Biggs said.

Barret said, "Since we got this room, might as well keep it. Biggs, stay here an' make sure we get to the core without trouble."

Biggs put a hand on his hip, where he'd holstered his two-way radio. "And if trouble comes to me?"

"Use your gun, if you so good at shootin'."

Biggs thumbed the pistol on his other hip. "Aye, boss."

At the end of the panels was an open elevator. They entered without Biggs. As the door began to close, Biggs gave them a wry salute and a wink.

The elevator lurched downward. Jessie was alone with Barret and Cloud.

* * *

For a time there was blessed silence - Cloud nearly lost himself in the hum of the machine as he descended into the bowels of the reactor. After the respite had settled his blood enough, he leaned against the wall and the steel of his sword clanked against the iron of the elevator.

Barret was not as calmed by the din of the machines. "Pretty soon the reactors'll drain out all the mako, and that'll be that."

Environmentalists. Cloud made a point of rolling his eyes. "It's not my problem."

"The Planet's dyin' Cloud!"

"I sold you my sword, not my ears. All I care about is finishing this job before security comes back, or before we run into roboguards."

Barret stormed silently, but reached for his two-way radio. "Yo Biggs, any roboguards patrollin' these passageways?"

After a moment, Biggs' voice crackled through. "Not that I can see, but there aren't any cameras in the deep places you're going."

"Don't 'spect there'll be robots patrollin' the air ducts."

The elevator slowed to a stop - Cloud marveled that his stomach and tongue could still feel the thrill of movement. Barret re-holstered the communication device, and cracked his neck deliberately.

They stepped onto a long staircase leading through a cavernous chamber. Jessie hurried ahead. Cloud spied the security cameras in the corners, and when they swiveled to follow them down the stairs, he raised his eyebrows at the lens. The bottom of the staircase ended in a three way split corridor - Jessie took to the left and stood guard at a man-sized grate in the wall; a breeze wafted from beyond it and stirred Cloud's yellow hair. Barret had his gun-arm fixed down the corridors but he murmured something to Jessie, who produced yet another handful of devices, which she placed over the screws in the grate. With a quick thrum the gate dropped off the wall and she pulled it aside. Barret forced a smile at Cloud, beckoning him to enter the circular tunnel.

Jessie handed him a flashlight on his way into the vent. He went ahead through the darkness, shining the light on the ribbed walls. Barret's voice echoed down the tunnel as he told Jessie to seal them in and secure their escape passage. Another mechanical thrum clasped the grate shut behind him.

Barret's flashlight joined his within time. "Not much of a talker, huh." Barret said in the darkness.

"Didn't sell you my mouth either."

"Is that extra? Wonder what a smile'd cost."

"More than you could pay."

"Hmph. Take the first left."

The tunnel branched to the right several times before breaking off to the left. Around the corner, the tunnel ended abruptly in a huge, rotating fan.

"What _did_ I hire you for?"

"A reason."

"Biggs," Barret said into his com device. "You got a visual on the core?"

"Aye," Biggs responded. "Clear of personnel. Fire at will, boss."

"Awright. Stand back." Barret trained his arm on the fan and put the flashlight in his mouth. Cloud backed up behind the aim of the gatling gun.

Barret pulled a switch-like trigger on the scarred place where the flesh and the metal fastened to each other. The veins in his arms bulged through the skin as the six chambers spun. All was light and sound in the tunnel - the rapid buffets of Barret's gun-arm lit up his face. Empty shells of bullets clanged on the tunnel floor. Sparks blasted forth from the fan. The blades dented and rattled to a stop.

The tunnel seemed pitch black now, even with the flashlights on. A wisp of smoke trailed through Cloud's beam of light. The blasts finished their echoing through the vents and the tunnel returned to quiet.

The mangled fan was twined about itself and buckled inwards. Cloud approached the nearest blade and pried a bullet out of it. It was hard as steel, but cherry red. It looked like it should have been liquid. It took him a moment to realize that the bullet was made of blood, the result of a crude alchemic reaction.

"Thought I told you to stand back," Barret pushed Cloud out of the way and kicked the fan in the center. The whole end of the tunnel splintered forth and fell open. Blue light from the reactor core flooded in.

Cloud looked out of the duct. The core was a huge subterranean pit – a metal cavern. The reactor was a long cylindrical obelisk running vertically along the opposite wall from the ceiling down into the glowing lake of viscous mako waste. Suspended above the mako pool was a walkway connecting the core station to a door somewhere below their duct. Barret eased himself out of the duct and onto a ladder along the wall. His gun-arm hung slack. Cloud followed him down to the walkway.

The smell of mako smothered him. Thick and maternal. Cloud could feel it in his eye sockets. He was briefly concerned for Barret, for whom mako contact might be fatal, but Barret had reached the walkway and seemed at ease. Cloud wiped a moist clump of hair out of his eyes when he reached the walkway. Barret led him towards the reactor. Cloud trailed his hand along the railing, trying to ignore the glow of the mako and the headache it had rooted in his brain.

"When we blow this place, it ain't gonna be nothin' more than a hunka junk." He dropped a backpack at the reactor station. "Cloud, you set the bomb."

"It's your bomb. Shouldn't you do it?"

"And expose the back of my neck to you an' your big-ass sword? Nah, see, I'm the leader. It's my job to make sure you don't pull nothing.'"

"Fine."

The reactor unleashed some steam from an exhaust pipe as Cloud approached the bag and the console. The mako smell was massaging his brain violently. Kneeling down felt like a two-story drop.

Unzipping the backpack, Cloud noted that the package had been sewn into it. The explosives were concealed within the lining, and wires wrigged out in long braids. The only thing visible in the backpack was a large clock, pre-set at a ten-minute timer.

Cloud could hook the bomb up to the console with ease. His head throbbed with an ultrasonic ringing.

**_Watch out. This isn't just a reactor!_**

When the warning came to him, he was at first startled – thinking that someone was on the walkway with him. It took him a moment to realize that there was no actual voice.

**_Watch out!_**

The words registered in his mind – and they were not his thoughts – but they had no sound. No association with tone, or gender, or age. The urgency was clear, but it was hard to concentrate through the pressure inside his skull.

**_This isn't just a reactor!_**

"What's wrong?" Barret's voice punched through the headache and the voiceless warning it had born. Cloud felt his muscles relax. He cleared his mind, but must have looked dazed when he turned to face Barret. "What's wrong, Cloud?" Barret asked again. "Hurry it up!"

"Yeah," Cloud said, shaking his head, as if to wake himself from a dream. "Sorry."

The wires of the bomb connected neatly to the fuses of the console. His hands nearly shook when he armed the bomb. The digital timer snapped from 10:00 to 09:59.

A deafening klaxon blasted from the core. Red lights flashed. Cloud was barely surprised by the alarm. He cursed himself for distrusting his instincts, and thanked with bewilderment the voiceless warning. Barret's gun-arm trembled at the ready.

The reactor opened two doors high above them and robotic cranes emerged, holding the last thing in the world Cloud wanted to see: the four robots were humanoid with blue armour and white metal heads – home to a red sensory bar where the eyes should have been. Their arms were much like Barret's.

When the cranes let them go, the roboguards lurched to life, looking in their direction. Red lights inside of their sensory bars swept side to side – Cloud knew they were scanning their molecules. Analyzing their DNA to see if they were authorized personnel. Cloud thought briefly that he might still be authorized as a SOLDIER – after all, the circumstances surrounding his _very_ early retirement were less than official.

All four of the roboguards raised their cannon arms at Barret. They were charging up powerful particle beams.

Barret pulled the trigger on his arm first, and his thick legs braced for the recoil. Blood bullets clattered against the blue armour. One of them staggered back from the attack, but it righted itself and readied its cannon at Barret again.

Cloud had not yet drawn his sword. He closed his eyes. His instincts would take over from here.

A blue blast of searing hot light screamed out of the roboguard's arm, just as Cloud's sword flew from its magnetic strap and came between it and Barret. The thick blade reflected the light into another roboguard – nearest to the rail. The robot careened off the walkway, falling out of sight.

Ignoring the stunned Barret, Cloud looked at the broadside of his sword – the particle beam had taken its toll on the steel, but the sword was thick and hardy. He and other SOLDIERs used to call it the Buster Sword, because it was 'more man than most.' Cloud sliced it through the air to cool it off, it arced over his head, snapping to the magnet on his back.

Barret threw himself out of the way as another roboguard unleashed a particle beam towards him. The beam struck the platform and the metal trembled. Barret sprawled across the walkway, pointing his gun-arm up and firing again.

Cloud roused himself out of his battle-calm to remember the timer. This needed to end. He focused his concentration on a new task. He closed his eyes again and the air became thick around him. Cloud could hear Barret's firing slow to a stop.

The swelling air drew itself into the mercenary, and for half an elated second, the chaos of the chamber compressed into a fixed whole. All molecules seem unified as a single atom, with Cloud as the nucleus. He inhaled the universe. And exhaled it back.

A thick bolt of blue lightning raked forth from Cloud's outstretched arms. It divided into three and screamed through the air towards the roboguards.

Barret reeled back as if struck with a shockwave. The roboguards had collapsed onto the walkway. Smoking heaps of twisted metal.

Silence again, only the beeping time-bomb.

Barret gaped at Cloud. "Magic?"

Cloud didn't need words. He glanced back at the timer. 09:29. He took off towards the ladder. Barret hesitated a moment, and ran after him.

The elevator ride up was tense. Cloud counted the seconds in his head. When it opened, Biggs was standing over the corpse of an engineer – the smoking gun was shaking in his hands. Cloud recognized the desperation in his eyes. He only ever saw that expression on the face of a brand new killer.

"Get a move on!" Barret shoved Biggs towards the exit.

"Where's Jessie?" Biggs' voice cracked.

"Huh?" Barret asked. "She hasn't come up yet?"

"Here she is," Cloud said, pointing at a monitor.

The camera was fixed on a smoky hallway, but Jessie was visible in the smoke. She was snagged on something.

"Damn!" Barret said. "Ain't no time to get her."

Cloud had been counting. "There's time."

"Cloud, there ain't—"

"Run if you want." Cloud stepped into the elevator. The doors began to close. "You hired me for a reason."

The elevator ride down seemed longer than all the ones before it. Cloud's hands rubbed together eagerly. Barret hadn't even hesitated to leave her behind. But his face when the doors closed on him had been priceless.

The elevator stopped. Before the doors had fully opened, Cloud was flying out of the lift and down the stairs, skipping three steps at a time. At the bottom, he veered left so fast his hand touched the floor. He sprang back up and bolted on.

The smoke was clearing around Jessie. Her empty pistol was discarded. The bodies of three MPs were slumped against the wall. Her face was expressionless.

She tugged at her leg, which was trapped underneath a collapsed floorboard.

"You're stuck," Cloud said.

"Really?"

Cloud pulled his sword free. "Keep still."

He plunged the thick blade into the floor and twisted. The broken metal snapped. Jessie pulled herself free.

"I thought you were gonna take my leg."

Cloud wrenched his sword out of the floor. "Don't need a leg."

An explosion from somewhere below them made the hallway tremble in every plate. Jessie took off ahead of Cloud. He fastened the sword to his back and nearly tripped over an MP on his turn towards the exit.

Jessie only took two stairs at a time, so Cloud beat her to the top. The elevator was still open. Before Jessie made it in, another explosion shook the whole building.

The ascent was the longest ride yet. The faint sounds of explosions rang against the steel.

Hot smoke had filled the security room. There were fires and explosions on all screens. Jessie stumbled over the dead engineer and Cloud almost stopped running before she caught herself.

Barret stood at the T-junction of the causeway, waiting. When he saw Cloud run out onto the bridge, he turned and charged towards the Sector 8 portico. The whole bridge was quaking. When Cloud got to the intersection, he grabbed the rail to help him swing around – the steel was hot under his glove. Cloud glanced back at the reactor as he ran. Jessie was right behind him, but flames were spitting out of the entrance after them. He grabbed Jessie by the hand and pulled her along faster than her legs could carry her. The moan of bending metal sounded from within the reactor, and they threw each other through the portico as the world erupted in sound and light and pain


	4. Book 1: The Girl Selling Flowers

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**The Girl Selling Flowers**

When flames first erupted from the Sector 1 reactor's yellow-trimmed entrance, licking the walls of Sector's 1 and 8, billowing forth towards the ivory tower in the centre of Midgar, the sound was synchronized with steam clocks blowing for 1:00pm. Most citizens were unaware that anything was happening until the top of the reactor blew. The unnaturally tranquil green-grey sky was alight with fires, burning hunks of hot metal and streams of boiling mako waste. A huge crack in the reactor split from the top of it down the front until liquid mako began to flood out of it onto the slums below Midgar proper.

The shockwave destroyed buildings in both sectors, and the sound was heard even at the other end of the circular metropolis, in the southern Sector 5.

After the explosions settled down, Cloud found himself covered in dust and debris but surprisingly unharmed. His ears were ringing, and all events after setting the bomb were a haze. He must have knocked his head, he thought, his memory of the reactor was fuzzy. He recalled that they had found materia and a potion. He recalled roboguards. Had a voice spoken to him? One of them had twisted their ankle. He must have knocked his head.

There was a wooden sign covering his legs, reading Goblin's Bar. Impaled into the sign was a jagged spike of cooling metal, directly above his knee. For a moment, he felt lucky. It soon passed. Luck, Cloud reasoned, was a fool's hero.

He kicked the charred sign off of himself and looked around the wasted tavern. The structure was mostly debris, piles of it creating a cavernous shield from the blast, but also trapping them inside. It was like the bar had been thrown upside-down. The Goblin's Bar, he recalled, doubled as an all-you-can-eat joint, and never closed. Legend had it that a woman had lived there for years on a single 'meal', but small myths like those were of no concern. He was counting survivors.

Biggs was alive, putting a mercy bullet into the head of a dying chef. Wedge was looking up through holes in the smoking heap at the clouds of pollution, and the space in between filled with plumes of black smoke. Barret and Jessie were accounted for as well. Cloud watched Jessie as she nursed her sprained ankle. He remembered now. She had twisted it on the bridge in the gap between Sectors, and Cloud had pulled her violently along. Due to Jessie's hindrance, they had barely made it to safety before the bomb exploded.

"We did it," Biggs said, putting the gun away. "We really did it. That should keep the Planet going, at least a little longer."

Wedge agreed calmly, "Yeah."

On the other side of the tavern, Barret heard their discussion. He said nothing. His eyes were fixed on the limbs scattered around them. There were a few bodies still in tact that must have died from the shock. Barret felt a swelling weight in his stomach. All of these innocents were dead because of him. He turned to the mercenary, who had said nothing since his freak-out in the reactor. Cloud was giving the bodies a cold stare, Barret thought, as if they weren't quite dead enough. Barret questioned whether or not the mercenary had the capacity for compassion, or if this was just part of his job. Thinking about Cloud Strife made Barret forget about his guilt just enough to blame it on Shinra Inc. After all, they had made Cloud what he was today.

Jessie was busy setting up a smaller bomb at the far wall, as far away from the group as possible. "Okay," she said, setting the five second timer. "Everyone get back!" She limped towards the three rebels and their hired blade. They moved against the opposite wall of rubble as the bomb exploded safely. The mounding debris that held them prisoner did not collapse. Wedge made a quick prayer towards the hole in the roof. This was the first thing any of the rebels did that surprised Cloud all day. Wedge said a quick 'thank you' to the stars before heading towards the hole in the wall. Star worship was like luck, Cloud remembered. It's the hero of the fortunate and the whipping boy of the downtrodden.

When they emerged from the destroyed tavern, they found themselves in a quiet niche in Sector 8, the Northeast Sector of Midgar. They heard the faint sound of screaming in the distance. There was also the sound of sirens, of glass breaking and of bullets being fired.

"Riot," Biggs said.

"All right," Barret bellowed. Everyone's attention turned to him, "If there's a riot, the Shinra'll be payin' attention to the crowd, not lookin' for us. Split up, make yo' way through the streets. We rendezvous at Sector 8 Station! It's too late for Shinra to stop the 1:30 train, but you bet your ass there won't be no more after that. See you on the train!"

Biggs, Wedge and Jessie ran in separate directions. Barret began towards the sound of screams, but Cloud ran to stop him.

"H-hey!" he shouted.

Barret turned around slowly. "If it's about your money, save it 'til we're back at the hideout. It's quarter after one, move y'ass!"

Barret ran off, leaving Cloud alone in the only sanctuary from the riot.

* * *

Between the Goblin's Bar and the Ronsons Theatre there was a dark alley. Cloud could barely see his hands in front of his face for all the smoke, but the flashing neon signs and streetlights on Valron Avenue ahead gave him a clear direction at least. The advertisements for the play "Loveless" glowed ahead of him. The lightboard depicted a starving pauper. Cloud didn't know or care much for the theatre, but he assumed that the actress playing the slumling was anything but starving, and that real paupers could never afford to see the play.

As he neared the street, he saw rich patrons evacuating the theatre en masse. The matinee must have been interrupted, Cloud reasoned, but judging by what was happening on Valron Avenue, the patrons would have been safer inside.

Most of the people flooding the streets were panicked, unsure of which direction to run, their eyes wide and mouths in various stages of screaming. A few people were what Cloud immediately labelled as 'determined' pedestrians, and they were mowing down anyone in their way trying to run from the source of the explosion. A few all-out brawls between determined pedestrians were breaking out. The patrons of the theatre were immediately swept into the riot. The blackbrick roads were littered with bodies that had been crushed by overturned cars or the scrambling mob.

Cloud didn't hesitate before moving into the crowd. He let his mind go and let his manufactured instincts take over. He made sure to avoid the brawlers, but had no qualms about knocking over the stumbling citizens and stepping over trampled bodies. He looked briefly down the long expanse of Valron Avenue. The theatre district was awash in chaos. Shinra MPs in riot gear were spread thinly amongst the crowd, and many of them were overwhelmed by the rushing herd.

Cloud moved through the riot and onto Arkaim Street. It was quieter there, too much debris to be a noticeable throughway to the station. The glow of the "Loveless" sign shone upon him in brilliant reds and blues. Up ahead he saw the train station, just past a shattered wooden building with the dying neon letters reading Chestnut Trees Inn. He took a few steps towards the station, but heard a loud thud behind him.

He looked back.

A flower girl had been standing in the quiet of the alley, continuing her business until a frightened worker had rushed past her, knocking her to the ground. She fell near an overturned newspaper stand, and her flowers spilled from her wicker basket onto the blackbrick.

If he had taken the time to think about it, Cloud would have let her be and continued onto the train station; his body, however, was still moving faster than his mind. He reached out his arm and helped her to her feet. She looked up into his eyes.

There was something about this girl's eyes. They were pale green, almost silver. They were soft eyes – like those of a pampered aristocrat – but they looked right into his with a penetrating, almost intrusive gaze. They caught him off guard; he had expected the frightened eyes of an almsperson, not the soft, disarming eyes of someone wise.

"Thank you," she said softly. Her voice had the unmistakable slumling inflection, but it somehow sounded richer, and mesmerizingly so! He realized that he was still holding her by the wrist. He dropped her arm clumsily. He had forgotten himself.

"What's happening?" she asked, "I heard an explosion."

Cloud looked back into the riot. The riot control were grabbing the determined pedestrians and arresting them for their display of panic. The noise from the street flooded back to him, raging, pulling, and he could have sworn he heard the sound of swordplay. It was as if someone was in the crowd; a dark evil that had seized his chance to spill more blood than necessary. Cloud recalled stepping over the bodies. Had they been cut? Had **he** been there? No, **he** was dead. In fact, it was five years to the day since **he** died. And the dead cannot kill.

"Nothing," he said.

She raised her eyebrows at him and smirked a little. "Nothing?"

"Uh, hey, listen..." He did not have a second part to that sentence. As the words left his mouth he had forgotten why he had wanted her not to just leave. He looked back at her and was once again enchanted by those eyes. Those thoughts of darkness within the riot, and the flames of his past seemed to turn to vapour and he was drowning in a pool of green tranquility. He blinked and began to quickly look over her from the corner of his eye.

She had pale, almost ghostly white skin. Her hair was a very light brown, with split bangs and a long braided pony-tail; it was tied with a long red ribbon and a white orb that he almost mistook for materia. She wore a pink dress and a cropped red jacket, ragged, worn and much too small, as if it belonged to a child. The red and pink seemed to compliment each other, focusing no attention on her slight figure. It was simply there, and so was she. While he eyed her up and down she never took her gaze off of his eyes, the charmed smile on her face didn't fade.

After a moment of silent eye contact, she broke it and knelt on the blackbrick. She began to frantically throw the flowers back into her woven basket. He knelt down to help her, but he suddenly took notice of the flowers. They were yellow and white – bell-shaped and ordinary. But they were _real_. Cloud couldn't remember the last time he saw a real flower – it had been years at least. Questions filled his mind. Where did she find the flowers? How did she get them to Midgar? They looked like they had been plucked that very day. He held one; it was crisp and smelled fresh and clean.

"Would you like to buy a flower?" asked the flower girl, "It's only one gil."

Cloud knew that a single gil was incredibly cheap for a real live flower. People would have paid much more just for the novelty of it, if not the quality of the flowers themselves. He reminded himself that real money was also a rarity now, and that the slumling before him probably couldn't accept credits. He reached into his bag of coins with his other hand and took out one gil. He held out his open palm with the coin inside.

"Oh thank you!" the flower girl replied anxiously, carefully taking the coin out of Cloud's hand and replacing it with a flower. In an instant, she was gone. Cloud did not even register that she was walking past him until she was already disappearing into the haze of smoke.

He smirked to himself. _'Of course she runs off – she got what she needed from me. I was a fool to think… I mean that's so unlike me. Just a good business woman. Anything for a gil, just like me.'_

He walked through the smoke into the station and looked at the great steam clock centrepiece. He had less than five minutes to sneak on the train. It would be harder to sneak aboard in a real station – he couldn't just climb on top like on the ride up from the slums. The train was sitting in the station, the conductors weren't to be seen. There was enough smoke in the station that he could move towards it unnoticed.

He lifted his foot to begin walking, but as he spotted the blue uniforms of Shinra MPs, his body was already turning to lead him behind the clock. Thanking his supernatural instincts, he quickly counted the MPs – four of them, but they were speaking into black boxes that they held to their ear like a telephone. A kind of portable radio device, Cloud assumed.

He hid behind the clock and considered. In front of him was a frayed piece of parchment with a poorly scrawled message:

_Don't be fooled by Shinra!_

_Mako energy doesn't last forever!_

_Mako is the Planet's lifesource_

_The end is in sight!_

_Protectors of the Planet: AVALANCHE_

He looked up at one of the clock's faces. Four minutes until the train departs. He could try using the SOLDIER angle, stating emergency procedures. That would draw attention, however, and without identification, they would bring him to the attention of the ivory tower and President Shinra. Not good news. Besides, Cloud sighed. SOLDIERs come in twos. That much he remembered.

The MPs were interrogating the people around him. More riot control officers were entering from Arkaim Street. It was time to leave. He walked through the station, his back to the riot control. Every second weighed heavily on him. He watched as the conductors walked to the doors in their official, crimson Shinra outfits – calling their all-aboards and looking at their pocket-watches. Before he knew it he was outside of the station, he had moved right through it to the other side.

He was standing in a street square, with no immediate signs to orient him. The commotion of the riot was barely audible here. Around the square were shops facing in. The smoke here was thin. In the center of the square was a stone railing where pedestrians could watch trains passing underneath on their way down to the lower city. Cloud approached the great opening in the ground and looked over the rail. The train still hadn't passed underneath. Perhaps there was still time to get back to the station. He turned to head back but was shocked to see two MPs nearly upon him. "Hey you!" one of them shouted. "You left the station pretty quick there."

"I'm a SOLDIER," Cloud said, "I'm searching this sector for the terrorists."

He knew he was a bad liar. They could sense the dishonesty in his voice, he knew it. One of them stepped forward. "What's your name and rank?"

"I'm ordering you to leave me alone," Cloud barked, "or have you forgotten _your_ rank?"

That was a little more like it. The MP stammered. "Y-yes sir. But we have orders straight from the President to take stock of everyone in the area."

He heard the whistle of the train blowing in the station. "I don't have time to be messing around with you guys," Cloud said. Faster than a flash, his hand flew to the handle of the sword and he brought it down upon one of them. The other MP leapt back out of range and grabbed the strange black box they were all carrying. He held it up to his ear like a telephone.

"Renegade SOLDIER! I repeat, a SOLDIER has joined AVAL—" Cloud cut him down before he could finish yelling into it, but the damage was already done. If it was a portable radio like Cloud assumed, every MP in the area would know now.

He was right. Out of the smoke in the train station came six armoured riot control officers. Upon seeing the bloody sword and the slain MPs, they began to fire upon Cloud.

There were no more options, but Cloud had dreaded the thought since arriving in the square. He ran towards the underpass, climbing onto the short wall of stone. He made sure that the flower in his hand was intact. The stem had been bent from when he grabbed the sword, but the bell of it was still crisp and new. A real flower.

The bullets flew through the air around him and hit the stone railing around his feet. He looked below as the train sped into the opening. No more time to think. He leapt from the oncoming fire towards the moving train below him.


	5. Book 1: Slumbound

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Slum-bound**

The last car of the slum-bound train was reserved for luggage and cargo. Currently, however, it was also the meeting place of the rebel group AVALANCHE. They had made their way to the last car after the train left the station.

Wedge looked at Barret, "Cloud never came."

"Wonder if he was killed?" Biggs asked nonchalantly. He had a small cut on his arm from the crowd they had gotten through. He didn't know exactly where he had gotten it; he hadn't noticed it until the train had taken off. He had just suddenly felt a searing pain in his right arm. He clutched his arm, squeezing the blood out, and the dirt that had amassed in the wound.

"Killed? No way!" Barret said. He sat on a wooden crate, legs propped on another, and his arms folded clumsily – the prosthetic gun sat like a barrel over his belly. Jessie sat behind Biggs, deep in thought.

"Say," Biggs said, letting his right arm rest as he scratched his face. "Do you think Cloud's going to fight to the end for AVALANCHE?"

"The hell would I know?" Barret snapped. "Do I look like a mind reader?"

Barret threw his left fist into the air and brought it down with force. It smacked another large wooden crate beside him. The sound made Jessie jump.

"Humph!" Barret exclaimed. "If y'all weren't such screw-ups."

They sat in silence, reflecting those words for a moment. There was some error, some miscalculation. The reactor wasn't meant to trigger an alarm. They could have escaped quietly, no riot, no more deaths than need be. They were screw-ups, in every way possible. And they had left their mercenary to die in the streets_. 'At least we won't have to pay him now,'_ Wedge thought darkly. He shrugged off the thought of Cloud's stash divided amongst him, Biggs and Jessie. To think about such things now was cruel_. 'How much money is Barret willing to spend on this operation, anyhow?'_

"Hey, Barret" Wedge finally spoke. "What about our money?"

Barret slammed the crate again. His hand broke through the wood. The faint smell of marlboro tentacles filled the car shortly afterwards. It smelled awful, however faint it was. It reeked like bad breath.

"Uh, nothing… sorry" Wedge quickly retreated and they returned to the silence. They were half in mourning – for Cloud, and for their mission.

In the silence, a loud thud was heard on the roof of the train. The four solemn faces looked up, saw nothing, and returned to their memories.

There was a knock on the cargo door. Another puzzled look. The silence that followed assured them that it was just their imaginations, and no one could possibly knocking on the door of a moving train.

The door to the cargo train slid open. Their eyes darted to the door, and the rushing walls of the tunnel beyond it. From the roof swung a figure in blues and purples, with streaks of yellow blurs. He landed.

"Cloud!" Jessie stood up grinning.

"Looks like I'm a little late," he said. He hadn't planned to say something so cheesy, but it had come out and there was nothing he could do about it now. He had only known Barret a few hours, but he expected the reaction that would come.

"YOU DAMN RIGHT YOU LATE!" Barret yelled, standing up. "Come waltzin' in here makin' a big scene!"

"It's no big deal," Cloud said, smirking, "just what I always do."

"Shit! Havin' everyone worried like that? You don't give a damn 'bout no one but yourself!"

"You were worried about me?" Cloud asked Barret coyly.

"Whaa?" Barret asked, bewildered. Angrily, he attempted to maintain status. "It's comin' outta your money, hot stuff! All y'all wake up!" His cohorts snapped to attention. "We're movin' out. Follow me."

Barret walked to the door that led to the rest of the train. He opened it and stepped into the other car. Biggs and Wedge followed suite.

Jessie was still behind Cloud. "Be careful," she said as she shut the door he had flown in through. "I'll shut this." She walked towards him. "Oh, Cloud!" she said. "Your face is pitch-black."

He stood motionless. She reached up a hand and stroked the dust from his face. For a brief moment he smelled the soap that she used. But her bare hands felt like leather on his skin. A hardened girl. Even her limp wasn't noticeable anymore. His smirk faded and he looked at her.

"Say," she said. "Thanks for helping me back at the reactor."

He nodded, his face not changing. She smiled and opened the door at the front of the car, exiting out and closing it behind her.

Moving towards the front of the train was like walking downhill. Inside of the tunnel, the train burrowed deeper and deeper into the bowels of the top plate. Cloud finished dusting himself off and opened the door between cars.

A sturdy pole below his feet connected the cars. It wasn't frail, but it shook and moved as the train did. He stepped onto it slowly, imagining Wedge doing the same just moments before. He kept his balance as the walls of the tunnel rushed by on other side of him -- of this he never doubted.

As he grabbed the handle of the next car door, he noted in his peripheral the tough-looking hinges - bolted and wired together. Cloud assumed that if the train's emergency computer willed it, the door could rip his arms from their sockets. It was nice to know that in case of emergency the cabins could be locked for safety, but Cloud didn't trust Shinra to do anything simply for safety. He imagined that the strong door he held was just as much for keeping people in as it was for keeping danger out.

The door surrendered to his hands for the moment, though, and he stepped up into the next car.  
He might have assumed that due to the dangerous passageway between cars that it was prohibited to travel from one to another. However, after laying their eyes on Barret, his gun-arm and the other soot-covered mongrels entering the car (all armed to the teeth) the normal passengers made their way downhill to the next car up - this included the Shinra conductor in the carmine-coloured garb.

The only person remaining in the car besides AVALANCHE was sprawled along the bench underneath the left window. He was poxied, with ragged clothing and a bad case of coroner's knees. Not contageous, but revolting nonetheless. He made the car smell like old liver and rigamyde. Barret sat across from him, looking at the slumling with a gentle pity that Cloud found queerly amusing. This was the same Barret that had just murdered thousands, cut off power to hospitals and emergency centers, right? The same Barret that had generously doled out bullets made of his own blood. A moment of self-doubt flickered through Cloud's mind. Perhaps Barret was just a gentle guy driven to extremes.

_'Well,'_ he scoffed, thinking about the past, _'What murderous lunatic isn't?'_

Jessie was at the front of the car, her eyes keenly fixed on a green monitor flashing circular maps of Midgar. From its bird's-eye-view perspective of the top plate, it looked like the face of a clock.

"I wonder why they didn't split Midgar into twelve sectors, since they're so obsessed with time here," Cloud thought aloud. "When it's eight sectors it looks more like a pizza."

"I know why," Jessie turned to him, "The story of Midgar goes that there were eight great cities, back before the Wastelands were the Wastelands..."

Cloud raised a hand, "Hey, that's nice, but I've got a question."

She stopped suddenly and her mouth closed tightly. She shook out a nod.

Cloud sighed, "I didn't mean to upset you... Do we have time for this story before the ID Checkpoint?"

She didn't say anything. Cloud could feel the eyes of the other team members on him. He felt guilty, and blamed them for it. "Finish your story."

"No, it's fine."

"I want you to finish your story. What happens?"

"...It's not a very interesting story. The eight cities all had names once, but no one in Midgar remembers them. That's the gist of it. What was the question?"

"It was about the ID Checkpoint."

"Shinra doesn't have any checkpoints on the way down," Jessie said, and explaining it lifted her spirits somewhat. "They don't care who leaves the plate, they only care who comes up. They won't be scanning the cars, you don't have to ride on top of the train this time."

Cloud smiled a little - it was a fake smile, but it was all he could muster to lighten the mood, "I kind of liked riding on top of the train. It made me feel dangerous."

"You are dangerous," she said. After a beat, "Um, I'll be making you a fake ID for our next trip up, so you can ride inside. It's safer, and we'll avoid detection."

When the train emerged from the tunnel, they were underneath the plate. The track was a slow decline, wrapping around Midgar's main support pillar, striping it like a barber's pole. Out of the window behind Barret, Cloud could see the vast expanse of the slums below, and the underbelly of the plate above. Barret turned his head to look, "Hey," he said, "You can see the surface now!"

Cloud leaned over and looked out the window. Above them were trappings of metal, guarding the city above. Below was scorched earth. The eight mako reactors used by the wealthy above had absorbed the energy of the Planet. Clustered inside the city gates, between the reactors and the main pillar, and swamping the bases of the eight support pillar, were cities. They were the slums, the cities of old that Jessie spoke of. Around since before the Wastelands were the Wastelands. Probably founded on rich, fertile fields. Now that the reactors trapped them in like numbers on a clock's face, they were nothing but shanties and piles of scrap metal, lit by huge industrial lights that were hung up in the ceiling.

"This city don't have no day or night," Barret moaned solemnly, "If that plate weren't there, we could see the sky."

"A floating city," Cloud said, "pretty unsettling scenery."

Barret nodded, and then stopped. He turned to Cloud's hunched figure, as if to make sure that he had heard the right voice. He grunted. "Never expect ta hear that outta someone like you. ...you jes' full of surprises." He turned back to the window and looked up at the floating city. "The upper world... a city on a plate... It's 'cuz of that fuckin pizza, that people underneath are sufferin! And the city below is full of polluted air. On top of that, the reactor keeps drainin' up all the energy."

"Then why doesn't everyone move onto the plate?"

"Dunno. Probably 'cuz they ain't got no money. Or, maybe... 'Cuz they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets." There was an unprecedented solemness to his voice.

"I know..." Cloud said thoughtfully, twirling the flower around in his fingers, "no one lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't run anywhere except where its rails take it."

Barret nodded and they looked out onto the rotating slums as they got closer. The train spiralled away from the upper plate. They were returning to their cutthroat land, Barret's precious Planet which had been so contaminated that nothing was left but dust. They were going home.


	6. Book 1: Anxious Hearts

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Anxious Hearts**

After the long spiral down the central pillar, the tracks eased onto an elevated throughway through the Sector 7 slums. Cloud had found a seat by this point, leaning back so far that his head looked through the window behind him, up at the underbelly of the Plate. The floating city's foundation was a patchwork collection of wood, steel and stone. The scaffolding hadn't been stripped. From the central pillar, the eight trenches between sectors were blinding crevices from below. Cloud glanced through the gap between Sector 7 and Sector 8, his eye taking in the green and black glow of the Shield.

The train began to start its deceleration after a long, quiet stretch of track. Cloud reared his head back up to look inside the car. Barret sat directly across from him. His eyes were closed and his hand held his gun-arm gently in his lap. Behind Barret was another window, and huge spires of twisted metal passed the window.

Cloud's attention immediately darted to the jagged steel jungle they were passing through. Barret cocked his head.

"The Train Graveyard," he explained. "Didn't notice it before?"

"On our last ride, I was more concerned about keeping balance." Cloud could now see the shapes of old train cars in the mountains of trash. Melted window frames and old coal engines wound around wheels and burned chintz furniture. Calling it a graveyard was apt – the outdated trains looked like corpses.

"Wasn't talkin' bout earlier today," Barret eyeballed him. "I was talkin' bout when you came to Midgar the while back. Tifa said she found ya here."

"Huh?" Cloud thought. "Oh, yeah. But I was sick, back then. I wasn't exactly taking in the sights."

Biggs laughed. "Taking in the sights. Good one. As if the slums are a prime tourist location."

Jessie nudged Biggs. "If you think this is grim, let's hope you never see a real graveyard in the slums."

"If they're piled up this high, I'd like to give President Shinra a personal tour. Not to spoil the surprise, but the tour ends with me adding his body to the heap."

"There's a happy ending," Wedge smiled.

Cloud leaned his head back again, out of the conversation and up at the plate. '_If happy endings existed_,' he thought, _'I'd never have met any of you.'_

When the train finally arrived at the station, Barret muttered orders to split up and to meet back at the hideout. AVALANCHE disbanded again, and Cloud stood up slowly and stretched. He left the train and onto the square stone slab that acted as a train platform in the slums. It had been chiseled crudely into a staircase leading down to the ground, and Cloud blinked at his surroundings.

Aside from the Shield hissing light through the cracks between the sectors, the underbelly of the plate was outfitted with industrial lights as large as houses, washing the slums beneath with a pale sheen. On the platform, there was another gaslight. Cloud spied two slumlings embracing underneath it. Their lips were cracked and their faces were smeared with black oil, but they kissed desperately. It made Cloud uncomfortable.

He moved down the steps and onto the earth. Even through his boots, he could feel how hollow it was. He couldn't remember the last time the ground had felt swollen and full, but he knew that it had, once, and that it had since changed. Or he had.

Down planetside, he was surrounded by the metal crags and stacks of train parts. One structure loomed above them all – a square stone column rising behind the train corpses. It connected with the top plate – holding up one slice of the pie.

Cloud took his time getting to the pillar. In passing it, he couldn't help but look up at its enormity. How something so thin could support the weight of an entire sector, he would never know.

The distance between the pillar and Seventh Heaven was only a couple of city blocks, but the path was twisted. Cloud noted that there had been two or three real houses on this plot of earth once, but their facades were shrouded by settlements made of scrap metal and chicken wire. Most of the real wood had been stripped for use elsewhere.

Roofs weren't common. Cloud remembered roofs from his days outside Midgar, but they had been protection from the elements. The slums had their own roof, fifty metres above the whole city. Walls were erected more for privacy. From the police. That, and protection from each other.  
The honest slumlings lived in the chicken wire. The stupid ones too. Neither lived for long.  
Seventh Heaven was its own building – a composite of real wood from other sources, and set apart from the crammed houses by small alleys on all sides. It even had a front porch. Real old-world, Cloud thought.

Barret was on the porch, leaning against the doorframe. His gun-arm was cooling; a thin serpent of smoke finished hissing out of a chamber as Cloud approached him. "Scaring the patrons away?" Cloud asked.

"For their own good," Barret replied. "They'da pissed 'emselves if you came waltzin' in on 'em."

"Can't a guy get a drink in peace?"

"Not if he's got creepy glowin' eyes."

"You're standing in my way."

"You're late."

"Yeah. I was held up by a big guy standing in my way."

"Get inside."

The double saloon doors were made out of wood so old that Cloud could feel the grooves through his gloves. The elbow hinges creaked open as he stepped inside. Almost everything in the bar was wood – even the ceiling fans were thin plywood planks. It smelled of old smoke.

Biggs had his feet propped on a table and an arm slung over the chair beside him. Wedge was finishing a steak at his table, and Jessie was sitting on top of the Out-of-Order pinball machine, her arm wrapped around one bent leg.

Tifa was behind the bar with her back to him. All he caught of her was dark russet hair before he heard someone running down the stairs. He jolted upright as the little girl came down, already shouting "Papa!" at him.

She stopped at the bottom of the staircase, just as surprised – a pale little girl with a bob of brown hair and wide green eyes. Cloud had no idea how to begin with her. She ran behind the bar.

"Marlene," Tifa said. "Don't you want to say anything to Cloud?"

Tifa came around the bar, Marlene hiding behind her legs. Tifa's skirt was too short to hide the girl, but Marlene crouched behind her anyway. Cloud looked up at Tifa – her brown eyes glanced at the flower in his hand, and then back at him expectantly. They smiled at each other for a moment.

"Welcome home, Cloud," Tifa said. Her voice was too dark for a twenty-year old. "Looks like everything went well. You and Barret seem to be getting along better than I thought you would."

"Your definition of 'getting along' is very loose."

"Well you didn't try to rip each other's throats out, so that's a bonus. Besides, when you were little you'd get into fights at the drop of a hat."

Jessie turned her head. "Is this a conversation that's safe for children to hear?"

Tifa raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Marlene poked her head out from behind Tifa. "Cloud's gonna try to rip Papa's throat out?"

Cloud shrugged. "Not unless Papa tries to rip out mine."

"Cloud!" Jessie scolded.

"As I heard it, this is a hideout, not an orphanage." Cloud declared upward. But when he brought his head back down, Marlene's face was pouting at him. He sighed and hunkered down beside her. "I'm not gonna hurt Barret," he said. "SOLDIER's honour."

Biggs snorted at that. Cloud shot him a look. He held out the flower for Marlene. "Here, a gift from me."

Marlene slowly reached out and took it. Cloud stood up and walked to the bar. Tifa addressed Jessie. "If she's old enough to understand what we're saying, she's too old to be sheltered from it."

"You're not her mother."

"No, Barret is."

"I'm what?" Barret walked into the bar.

"Papa!" Marlene sprang out from behind Tifa.

"There you are!" Barret smiled wider than Cloud had seen. He scooped up the child and with a practiced ease slung her around his head until she was sitting on the back of his neck with her hands on his head.

"Welcome home," Marlene said.

Barret noticed the flower in her hand. "What's this?"

"Cloud gave it to me."

"Well did you thank him?"

Marlene stammered. "Thank you, Cloud."

Cloud didn't know how to respond, so he half-lifted a hand up and cocked his head. He felt stupid.

"Good girl," Barret said.

"Neat trick," Biggs laughed. "You're right Tifa. Barret _is_ the mom."

Barret grunted. "Fuck you! Manners are important." He carried Marlene over to the pinball machine. "Everything okay in here?" he asked Jessie.

"Yeah, we're just corrupting your kid with talk of violence."

"Shit, Jessie, have you seen my arm? My baby girl's growin' up in the real world whether I want it or not. Move aside."

Jessie shifted and Barret hit the trigger on the pinball machine. The whole section of floor beneath the machine shivered and somewhere beneath the bar a huge engine rumbled to life. Barret and Jessie were lowered with the machine into the hideout below. Moments later, the pinball machine rose back up out of the hole alone. Biggs and Wedge were next.

Cloud sat down on a barstool. A television had been mounted on the wall. There was footage of the explosion from several cameras – security cameras from inside stores, traffic copters, tourist's handhelds. A woman's voice was being recorded live overtop of the footage.

"…_footage still coming in. Not much is known about the source of the explosion, which occurred just after one p.m. Midgar time_..."

"Would you like a drink?" Tifa asked.

Cloud nodded.

She pulled a few drinks off the shelves and placed them on the bar; she found a glass and began to pour.

"…_we're just now getting reports that the terrorist group AVALANCHE is claiming_…"

"Rebels!" Tifa yelled at the television. "_Rebels_! We're not terrorists, we're liberators."

"I thought you were housing AVALANCHE, not joining them."

"Housing them is joining them."

Cloud had grown tired of watching. He felt a pinging sensation in his back. He reached behind him and pressed where it hurt. Immense pain ran through him. He brought his hand around to face him. Blood. When he had jumped for the train, one of the MPs must have gotten him.

"Cloud, you're hurt!"

"This?" He prodded at his back some more. "No, it's just a graze. Just a bullet went through me, that's all"

"Just a bullet?" She turned to the wall and plucked a potion off the shelf.

"No. I can't stand the taste of that stuff. I'll be fine."

"I've served potions to people for far less serious injuries."

"If you take too much of that stuff you become dependent on it."

"Cloud, you've been _shot_. A potion every now and then when you've been _shot_ isn't going to screw your immune system."

"Seriously, Tifa, I just want a hard drink."

"You won't notice it, trust me."

She poured and mixed and slid the glass to him. As he lifted the drink to his lips, he could smell the strong herbs in the potion. He sipped it. It was appropriately horrible. The slum stuff was even worse than the kind he was used to. He quickly gulped the rest as she cleaned the bar.

"It's on the house," she said. He nodded. "You'd better get your money before Barret forgets about it."

Cloud nodded again and stood from the bar. The pain seemed to dissipate. The horrid taste of potions was a small price to pay for their magical healing properties. He walked towards the hole in the ground. The pinball machine rose to meet him. Underneath the out-of-order sign, Cloud could make out a cartoonish looking foreigner in a steepled hat and the title 'Wutai Warrior!'

He stepped onto the small square of moving wood and pressed the button

A machine beneath Cloud's feet clanked and rattled. He was lowered into a square cellar directly underneath the floorboards. Only a few wine racks remained along the walls, most had been replaced by emergency lights and a punching bag that Barret was working on furiously. A huge, squat oak table took over most of the cellar, and the rest of AVALANCHE hunched over it, perusing a blueprint of Sector 5.

Biggs didn't even look up. "Welcome to _je-_AVALANCHE."

Cloud had never heard that wording before. "_Je_..?"

"Don't mind him," Jessie said. "It means, like, 'home' in a dead language. He tends to shoehorn it into most conversations. Before he decided to save the Planet, Biggs was going to be a _scholar_."

"Someone's gotta be the brains of this operation," Biggs said.

Cloud stepped off the pinball machine platform and onto the stone floor of the cellar. The platform immediately began to rise back up to the bar. Jessie was already paying more attention to the small antenna-radio on the table. Cloud recognized the voice crackling through – the President was giving a public address.

"…_approximately_ _one in the afternoon, the Sector 1 mako reactor was sabotaged and bombed_…"

Biggs spoke over the announcement. "Actually, I used the term's second, more modern definition: using _je_ before the inhabitants to describe whose home this place is…"

"…_the terrorist group AVALANCHE has claimed responsibility for the bombing. It is expected that AVALANCHE will continue its reign of terror_…"

"…the original meaning might even have come from the Ancients, who would have used it in front of a place to describe the person. So instead of this place being _je_-AVALANCHE, every one of us would be _je_-Cellar, or _je_-Bar, or _je_-Slums…"

"…_but do not fear. SOLDIER has been mobilized to protect our citizenry from this senseless violence_…"

"…the Ancients, unlike us, didn't create borders based on their populace. They didn't define where they were by who they were. They instead defined who they were by where they came from, and in the end, we're all of us _je_-Planet…"

"…_this is our home, all of us. We will not let outsiders poison our minds with fear. We will not let them fill our skies with fire_…"

Jessie crossed her arms. "He likes to make long speeches, doesn't he?"

_'Which one?'_ Cloud turned the radio off.

"Hey!" Wedge whined. "We were listening to that."

"You got your information," Cloud said. "SOLDIER is going to be patrolling the streets."

"That means a curfew," Jessie sighed. "I'd hoped that bombing in the day would have avoided that."

Barret stopped punching the sack in the corner of the room. "Ain't nothin' gonna stop the Shinra from oppressin' the people. They'll take any excuse they can get."

"My money—" Cloud began.

Barret harrumphed. "Were there any o' those big bad SOLDIERs fightin' us today?"

"None, I'm positive."

"Y'seem pretty sure."

"If there were you wouldn't be standing here."

Barret stepped forward – he almost lunged, but Biggs put a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't go thinkin' you so bad jes cause you were in SOLDIER." He shook Biggs off. "Yeah, you're strong," he said. "Probably all them guys in SOLDIER are. But don't forget that your skinny ass's workin' for AVALANCHE now. Don't get no ideas 'bout hangin' on to Shinra."

The pinball machine was on the descent again, bringing Tifa down into the cellar.

Cloud eyed Barret. "Staying with Shinra? You asked me a question and I answered it. That's all." He took Tifa's place by the machine as she stepped off the platform. "I'm going upstairs. If you say I'm working for you, I'd better be getting paid."

"Wait, Cloud—"

"Let 'im go, Tifa. Looks like he still misses the Shinra—"

"Shut up!" Cloud spat. The cellar fell silent. All eyes were on him. "I don't care about Shinra, or SOLDIER! But don't get me wrong, I don't care about AVALANCHE either, and the Planet can rot for all I care. I am not _je_-AVALANCHE. I'm outta here

Cloud slammed his palm on the pinball button, and Wutai Warrior ascended to the bar. He stepped off the wooden platform before it fell away again. The bar was completely empty – the plywood fans had stopped turning, and only ghost lights were on above the bar. Cloud wound his way through the tables towards the saloon doors.

When Wutai Warrior ascended again, Tifa rode up. "Cloud, stop. Where are you going?"

"This gig isn't worth the price." He didn't even turn around.

"Listen, I'm asking you. Please join us."

That stopped Cloud at the doors. He turned. "You're asking?"

"The Planet is dying. Slowly but surely it's dying. Someone has to do something."

"So let Barret and his buddies do something about it. It's got nothing to do with me."

Tifa exhaled. "Sure. Fine. But it's important to me. Have you forgotten me?"

Cloud cocked his head. "Tifa, thanks for your help the last few weeks. If you wanted pay for it, consider the last job—"

"Cloud! It's not just the last couple of weeks. Are you just going to ignore your childhood friend?"

"Were we that close?"

"Have you forgotten? What about the promise?"

Cloud twitched. "Promise?"

"So, you did forget. Cloud, it was seven years ago."

"Oh..?"

"You remember?"

"Oh."

"Cloud?"

"Yes. Yeah. The night of the meteor shower…".


	7. Cloud's Recollection: The Promise

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Cloud's Recollection: The Promise I**

'_Nibelheim. It's hard to remember; the buildings seemed blurred, like a newspaper held in the rain for too long. I seem to remember, though, what I was wearing. My green tunic and matching britches. Tifa liked green, and, well, so did I, I guess._

_The night was full of stars. That's right, that night was the meteorite shower – the only one I remember happening in our lifetimes. I stood atop the well, smelling the old oak of the water tower. Yes, I remember clearly now. My hair was in a ponytail, not a very long one, not nearly as long as Tifa's. I don't think she cut her hair once in her first thirteen years. Even now, as I'm recalling this, her hair almost reaches the floor. So much has changed, though, since that time._

_I stood stop the well for one hour. I leaned against the water tub for a while. It seemed huge back then. I'm sure it would be small now, for I've grown a bit since I was fourteen. An hour passed, I was convinced she would never come._

_Getting off my feet, I sat on the well-side, my legs dangling towards the cobblestone below. The sky was boring anyway._

_Around from behind me, I heard footsteps, but despite my anticipation, I did not turn around. I had grown too frustrated; she had already let me down. I sat there, my eyes fixed on the cobblestone, waiting for her to leave._

"_Sorry I'm late," she said. "You said you wanted to talk about something?"_

_Her voice was so familiar. Tifa Lockheart, the mayor's daughter. I inhaled slowly._

"_Come this spring," I said, "I'm leaving this town for Midgar."_

_Now that I remember it, my voice was much higher in pitch than it is now. It fit me, at the time._

"_All boys are leaving our town" she said from behind me, a little too nonchalantly. It angered me, how she didn't seem to care, and I stood back on the oak._

"_But I'm different from all of them. I'm not just going to find a job." I looked Tifa straight in the eye. "I want to join SOLDIER. I'm going to be the best there is, just like Sephiroth!"_

_As I watched her eyes, I saw something change there. To this day, I still can't put a finger on what exactly sparkled there in her eyes. I assume it was my mention of Sephiroth._

"_Sephiroth…" Tifa repeated. "The great Sephiroth."_

_I thought she would be impressed. I tried to subdue my smile, so I turned away from her. My old poker face, but that never worked on her, so I had to turn away. The large water tub had a closed lid, a great, big, white dome. I figured I could get up there if I tried. It was difficult for me back then, I learned a lot after I left. Hell, I joined SOLDIER, didn't I?_

"_Isn't it hard to join SOLDIER?" Tifa asked as I reached the top. Proud of myself, I turned and looked down on her. She wore a green dress. Pretty._

"_I probably won't be able to come back to this town for a while," I said, although the thought did not trouble me much. Nibelheim no longer felt welcoming, that I remember, I can't quite place why. My memory is awful; I'm no good at recalling things._

_But I remember wanting to go to Midgar. To join SOLDIER. I consider myself an honest person, and I'd never lie to Tifa._

_Tifa sat where I had waited for her, her legs now swinging in unison off the wood. "Will you be in the newspapers if you do well?"_

"_I'll try," I said, and I overlooked the town. The buildings still seem fuzzy, as if the town isn't real but a set in a play or a motion picture, a telly program._

_Tifa held one knee with her hand and, using it for balance, she leaned backwards, looking at me upside-down. "Hey," she said, "why don't we make a promise?"_

_Before I could respond, Tifa continued. "Umm, if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind... You came save me, all right?"_

_That was a shock. I looked at her upside-down smiling face. "What?"_

"_Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me. I want to at least experience that once."_

_I was stunned. I had a million words in my head, rushing through. Most of them contradicted each other, so I could only repeat, "What?"_

"_Come on!" Tifa stood up and faced me with a pout. "Promise me!"_

"_All right," he said. "I promise." I'm not sure if it was a dismissal, or if I really meant it. It just seemed like the right thing to say. I didn't think, for a second, that she would remember it, or even me for that matter. We must have been really good friends._

_My childhood is a blur. Tifa talks about old times that I just don't remember, as if she's describing her adventures with someone else, and I'm just a nobody. I don't remember being really good friends with Tifa. I didn't even remember the night at the well until she reminded me._

_She looked up into the sky, and my eyes followed. We watched the stars fall from the sky and across the far reaches of space._

"_They seem so harmless, don't they?" Tifa asked._

_I nodded, looking up in wonderment. It was so peaceful, probably the last peaceful day I ever had. "Yeah," I agreed serenely, "harmless."_

"_They're not," she giggled, "If one of those hit us, this whole town would go up in flames."_

"_I doubt that the whole town would," I said, "Nibelheim is pretty big. Of course, it's not as big as Midgar. I think you're pretty safe here. I doubt you'll be needing that hero."_

_A huge meteorite flew across the sky and lit up the town, and to be honest, it scared me. I cringed in fright, and Tifa began to laugh at me. I tried to straighten my face, but to ease my startlement, I began to laugh too. Uncontrollably._

_The stars fell that night. It was the last time I saw her for a very long time.'_


	8. Book 1: Into the Darkness

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Into the Darkness  
**

Cloud let go of the saloon door, and swivelled his head to look back at Tifa. _Wutai Warrior_ had descended again – she stood beside the hole with her arms crossed. "You remember?" she asked.

He couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. "I'm not a hero, and I'm not famous."

"Well, too bad. I'm in a bind today."

"This," he stared at the hole in the ground, "isn't what I thought you had in mind."

"Well, what did you think I had in mind?"

"The promise was for _you_, not for your friends."

"What is it going to – look at me – what is it going to take to convince you that I am part of this?"

He couldn't answer. Not when she was looking back at him. _'They're beneath you,'_ he thought.

"Please," Tifa said. "Nibelheim is gone. This is all I have left. I live or die by these missions, and they will fail without you. It's not the kind of rescuing I had in mind, either, but that's life. You might not be famous but you got your dream, didn't you? You joined SOLDIER. You did that much."

_Wutai Warrior_ brought Barret up to the main tavern. "You're wrong," Barret said. "His SOLDIER ass _is_ famous."

"You could hear us down there?" Cloud asked.

"Some'un went cheap on the floorboards." Barret stepped off of the pinball machine and shot Tifa a smirk. "It's all over the news that a rogue SOLDIER was spotted with us, so there's yo' fame." He crossed his arms at Cloud. "But you was right, you ain't no hero, and using it as an excuse to run ain't gettin' you any closer. All that said, though, a promise is a promise, an' I recall us exchangin' some words 'fore the mission'bout cash, and my owin' you some. So here."

Barret tossed a gunnysack across the tavern, and Cloud caught it. Barret huffed. "Hope it does you good, wherever you go."

Cloud looked inside. A small bundle of coins clanked together – Cloud guessed no more than a paltry fifteen-hundred gil. He looked back up – at Tifa first, then Barret. _'Tifa, you're looking out for them, but who is looking out for you?'_

"This is my pay?" Cloud asked finally. "Don't make me laugh."

Tifa started. "What, then you'll—"

"Got the next mission lined up? I'll do it for three thousand."

"Three—!" Barret stammered.

Tifa put a hand on his shoulder. "The Planet," was all she said.

Barret growled at Cloud. "Two thousand."

"Two and a half."

"Done."

"I'd shake on it, but, y'know." Cloud gestured at Barret's gun-arm, smiling when Barret bristled.

Tifa let go of Barret. "Thanks, Cloud."

"Yeah," Barret said through gritted teeth. "You're a real pal."

* * *

Tifa was up before dawn, although nobody knew exactly what that was anymore. The huge floodlights on the ceiling of the slums shone twenty-four-seven. She knew it was early because the clock said so – it shone its red light on Cloud's face as he slept on a chair. Six in the morning. Tifa sat up. She had kept to her bed, Barret to his, and little Marlene (Tifa's other roommate) to hers.

After she got dressed, she went downstairs into the bar. It was quiet. The regulars wouldn't be coming in for another few hours. The tables were unfilled, the green bottles of wine were corked, the tealight candles were unlit. The pinball machine (with its permanent 'Out of Order' sign) was still. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie slept down in Headquarters, in case the army came looking for them.

Her gloves hung behind the bar. She walked towards them and picked them up. Battle gloves.

"Tifa?" a small voice asked. She looked down. The four-year-old girl stood with her arms crossed. She wore baggy cotton pyjamas and a large bow in her hair. "Why are you up so early?"

"I'm getting ready." She said.

"You're not going with my Papa, are you?"

Tifa nodded, and began to put the gloves on. Marlene stood on a stool and folded her arms over the bar.

"You hit people, don't you?"

"Oh, sweetie," she said. "I mostly kick."

"Why don't you just shoot people, like Papa?"

"I don't like using weapons."

"But _you're_ a weapon, Tifa."

Tifa almost smiled. That's what Zangan used to say. Tifa has been his protégé. From his master teachings she had turned her body into a whirlwind of concentrated power. She began her training at fifteen, self-defence for a girl of extraordinary dimensions. Her training moved to full on martial arts when she proved a fast learner.

Tifa grabbed a green orb from behind the counter. She inserted it into a portable slot, which she hooked to her belt.

"Materia's a weapon too," Marlene observed.

Tifa turned to Marlene. "It doesn't have to be. Here, watch this."

Tifa closed her eyes and concentrated. It was a recent skill that she obtained after coming to Midgar. It still terrified her. She felt her mind connecting to the crystal hanging off her belt. She could feel the space around her, the warmth of Marlene. The chairs and tables mapped themselves in her mind – not the things as themselves but as a collection of atoms. Burning protons. She found in her mind the tealights on the tables and sent the magic of the materia there.

She opened her eyes to witness the effects. One by one, the wicks sparked to life. Within a few seconds, every table was lit softly. The bar was illuminated – her bar. Hers, now that she'd outlived enough of her peers to inherit it.

"There," Tifa smiled. "Open for business."

Marlene laughed, but the smile fell from her face again. "You don't want to stay?"

"Sorry. You're a big girl, though, you can take care of the place. Here. Pop quiz: how do you make a Hellfire?"

"Equal parts tomato orange and vodka juice."

"Vodka's not a juice, but close enough. If anyone gives you trouble?"

"Get in the safe under the counter."

"Good girl. We'll be back before you know it."

"Are you going because of Cloud?"

That stopped Tifa in her tracks. Yeah, that had to be it. Cloud was not quite better yet. She had been taking care of him, he was sick. She needed to watch him, closely. "I'm going because Cloud and your father need me."

Marlene smiled. "You like him."

Tifa pulled a rag off the counter and snapped it at the girl playfully. "I do not!"

"Do too do too!" Marlene ran upstairs repeating it. Tifa smiled but was once again filled with anxiety. She took a few of her home-brewed potions off the shelf and clipped them to her belt when she heard the clunking of Barret's enormous boots down the staircase.

"Marlene, what are you doin' up so early?" Barret yawned.

Marlene ran towards her father. She jumped into his arms and he swung her onto his shoulder with his hand. She flew through the air quite easily and landed. Barret stood bare-chested looking at Tifa. His eyes drifted to the gloves, the potions. His eyes widened and he exclaimed, "Now wait jus—"

"No arguments, Barret." Tifa smiled and held her hands behind her back. She nodded a little and looked at Barret through her bangs. Barret just shook his head and walked to the pinball machine. He flipped the switch and it descended onto his sleeping lackeys.

Tifa poured herself a drink.

* * *

Cloud awoke. His back ached – the wounds must have re-opened in the night. He lamented taking Tifa's potion, and reached for the flask he had taken from the train station guard. He opened the lid and was about to drink when his nose detected something and he stopped.

It was a Shinra potion, all right, but it smelled incredibly potent. He looked inside the flask, and the lights from outside showed him a glint of red liquid inside the flask. His eyes went wide. This was no potion – it was a phoenix down. The most rare and coveted of elixirs – rumoured to raise the dead. Even a drop of it would heal most wounds. A swig would re-attach limbs. He would not waste it on a morning's pain.

He grabbed the sword and his armour from beside the straw woven chair. He stood up and stretched. The buster sword was too heavy this early in the morning, so he dropped it. The flank of the sword fell, making a clunking sound on the wooden floor of Tifa's room. Cloud sighed in disappointment

He clipped the sword to his back and walked down the stairs, fastening his monocrys plackart and his gloves on the way. He made sure the phoenix down was clipped securely to the plackart, still bewildered at the item's rarity.

"Morning, Cloud." Tifa smiled from the middle of the bar. "Did you sleep well?"

Cloud cocked his head from side to side, cracking his neck. "Barret's snoring kept me up," he smirked. Barret seemed anything but amused, putting down his daughter and walking across the bar to get his jacket. He turned back to Cloud.

"Our next target's the Sector 5 Reactor. Head for the station first. I'll fill you in on the train." He walked outside where Biggs Wedge and Jessie were waiting.

Marlene had run upstairs and Tifa was alone with Cloud in the bar.

"I'm coming this time." She smiled a bit.

"You shouldn't get involved. It's dangerous."

"Ah, right. This is man's work? Is that it?"

"No, Jessie's coming. I just don't care about any of them. You're a liability."

She smiled a bit at that, but told him she was coming anyway, and fastened to herself what Cloud took to be iron elbow-pads. He said nothing and walked out of the bar, she followed.

Barret stood alone in the street; the other three had already made their way to the station, so he Cloud and Tifa were to travel together. As they walked, Cloud noticed Barret holding tightly to a green orb.

"That's the materia we found in the reactor."

"I, uh ...I don't really know how to use materia! Just teach me how to use it!"

Cloud shook his head. "You wouldn't understand. Only members of SOLDIER can use materia."

Tifa was silent. Barret squeezed on the orb with the intention of smashing it, but he could not seem to do it. He threw it to Cloud who caught it with ease. Cloud held it and they continued their march.

"Materia stones," Cloud said, holding the orb with curiosity, "Each have a magical element or property to them. For instance—"

Cloud unsheathed his sword and Wedge tensed up for a moment. Cloud pointed to the materia slots on his weapon. There were two spheric recesses in the sword, and inside were two green spheres. Cloud tapped on one of the stones in his sword with the stone in his hand.

"This materia stone I have," Cloud explained, "Is good only for the use of lightning-based magic. The other has ice magic in it. It doesn't matter who uses it, the type of magic is the same. The only difference is the power of the spell. If say, a lowly Third-Class SOLDIER were to use the lightning spell, the effects wouldn't be all that strong. If a First-Class member of SOLDIER, say me, were to use it, well you've seen the effects. Everything you can think of can be used as a spell if there is a materia stone for it – fire, gravity, wind, the very ground itself. They can be used to make you jump higher, think faster, but they all have a price."

"What's that?" asked Barret.

"Using the spells and abilities in materia tires you out," Cloud explained, "not physically, but it exhausts some other part of you. Some part that only SOLDIERs can access."

"Your soul," Tifa offered.

"Yeah. Your mana, your ether. Some call it your spirit."

"I've gotta spirit," Barret said, "So why can't I use it?"

"Because," Cloud said, "I already said: normal humans can't use materia, they have to be dipped in mako, and the only way to do that without getting poisoned is being a member of SOLDIER."

The station was bustling with workers, some in crimson uniform, and some in rags. Shinra workers unlucky enough to live in the slums avoided the screaming street vendors – indistinguishable from the thieves. One street vendor waved his wares at Biggs as they strode by. "I got full shirts and tunics here, intact! Owned by a Shinra executive, his loss your gain!"

Jessie nudged Cloud. "Look at his hands!"

The vendor's hands were burned nearly through. The heaps of bubbled flesh were spotted with black flaps of charred skin. Tifa remarked, "He did that to himself."

"But why?" Jessie asked.

"Anyway to get rid of fingerprints," Cloud pushed his way through the crowd. He kept a hand on the phoenix down, swinging along his plackart. "There are operatives within Shinra who do the same. It's not the only way to ID someone, but it works, especially outside of Midgar. Smart idea for slumlings, although this guy's method was much less elegant than the work I've seen on—"

"You talkin' bout SOLDIER again?" Barret asked.

Cloud kept walking. "No."

They made their way out of the crowd and up the steps onto the platform. The black train hissed steam at their feet. Jessie handed Cloud his fake ID card. Cloud twirled it around his fingers, as he had with his real one years ago. It was an incredible facsimile. The letters of the name (now Myles Stormbird) even had the holographic security features found in the real thing. Unlike his old keycard, however, this didn't have the Shinra logo on it. His new identity wasn't employed by the company. A smart move on Jessie's part. Cloud was impressed.

"Now you don't have to ride on top of the train!" Jessie grinned. "What do you think?"

"All the names in the world, and you landed on Myles?"

"Look on the bright side," Biggs cut in. "She couldn't get any more ridiculous than 'Cloud,' so you're all set."

"Very funny."

Barret ducked his head in order to enter the front car. Cloud observed (with no small amount of amusement) half of the passengers exit the car through the other door. They made their way along the platform and re-entered the train on the next car down.

"I was expecting all of them to leave," Wedge remarked.

"Don't worry," said Biggs. "Once Cloud gets on, the rest'll leave."

"You mean: once Cloud's _sword_ gets on," Jessie low-fived Biggs.

Cloud followed Barret on to the train, watching as the car emptied. Biggs and Jessie were right.

He swiped his ID card on the wall-unit beside the door. If it was suspect, they wouldn't know until the checkpoint.

The rest of the party entered the train, sprawling out on the row of seats under the windows. "This sure beats yesterday's cargo train," Biggs had one leg up on the next seat. "Our last merry jaunt up to the plate wasn't exactly first class treatment."

"Neither is this," Tifa swiped her ID.

"Right, I forgot. Back in Nibelheim, you were the mayor's daughter. A thousand apologies, madam. If the train doesn't please your highness, we can muster up a chariot, perhaps? Drawn by a gold-feathered chocobo? May we line the tracks with pillows so that it doesn't jostle you too much? I'd hate for your upper back to start hurting."

"Hey!" Barret shouted and the smirk flew off Biggs' face. "Tifa's lived in the slums longer than any of us. Fightin' the Shinra while you were on a bed of furs by cozy Candle-light. And if you make one more nasty comment what like you was sayin' at the end? Biggs you're gonna be in a world of pain. I won't even shoot you. Naw, that'd be mercy. I'll jes' let Tifa deal with you, like how she deals with the curs what come into her bar and disrespect her."

Tifa, as if on cue, began to crack her knuckles.

Barret narrowed his eyes. "Think you better ride in the next car up, boy."

Biggs waited a tense moment, darting his eyes from Barret to Tifa. Kicking off of the seat, he left the car, calling back. "See you at the platform, fuckers."

"He'll cool down," Jessie assured everyone. Cloud noted that she wasn't necessarily talking about Biggs.

"Next time," Tifa sighed at Barret. "I can fight my own battles."

"Oh, I know it," Barret laughed. "But I need him with his limbs still on."

Outside the train, the doorman hollered "All-aboard!" and one last passenger bolted onto their car – unaware of who was inside. Barret gave the guy a quick glance. No weapons. No uniform. Barret ignored him and turned back to Cloud.

Cloud's keen eye, however, spotted something. As the man swiped his ID card, Cloud could make out a logo on the card. A red diamond overtop of a white square. The Shinra company logo.

Cloud's mind fired on all cylinders, slowing the world down around him. He could feel his own pulse throbbing in his neck.

Barret hadn't seen the logo. That was a good thing – he would kill the man if he knew, and if they went through a checkpoint with a dead body they wouldn't even make it to the plate. But if the man identified them—

The train lurched to life. The tracks led them along miles of ashen earth. Piles of broken trains passed by the windows.

"_Good Morning, and welcome to Midgar lines. Arrival time at Sector 4 Station will be 11:45am, January fifth..."_

The Shinra worked took a seat, seemingly unperturbed by their presence on the car. _Seemingly_.

"Sector 4," Barret said. "Haven't been there yet. Awright, what do we know about it?"

Cloud kept the worker in his peripheral. He hadn't taken an interest in them yet.

"Take the industry of Upper Sector 6 and the residential density of Upper Sector 7 and you've got a basic idea," Jessie explained.

"So like a factory town?" Barret asked.

"No," Jessie said. "I would say that Sector 6 is more like a factory town. This is too crammed. We're talking almost a million people wedged in between big industry. A lot of pollution surrounded by a lot of people. And with the smoke-shield around Midgar, living in Sector 4 is like living in a chimney."

"Damn. Is black lung a problem there?"

"From what I gathered from the Shinra info I obtained," Jessie started. (Cloud tensed up and eyed the Shinra worker) "There is a lot more sickness there than in other Sectors, but any specific illnesses haven't become trends."

"All comin' from the same source, though, I bet. Mako poisoning. This'll be like puttin' em out of their misery."

The Shinra worker thumbed through his newspaper.

"Right," Jessie continued. "But because of the high-disease rate, none of the doctors live in Sector 4, they all come out of Sector 7. So aid will arrive relatively late."

"Hey," Wedge piped up for the first time since the train took off (Cloud's arm twitched at the new sound). "That's a major downer."

"That _is_ a downer!" Barret agreed. "Why are we talkin' bout all this? Don't want to know about the people that suffer for the greater good."

"Then why did you ask me?"

"Don't matter if I want to know or not. Ignoring the suffering is what _they_ do, not us."

The Shinra worker turned another page in his newspaper. Normal people didn't read that fast.

"Hey," Cloud didn't want to say Barret's name out loud. "Enough shop talk."

Barret guffawed. "Listen to Mister-Serious. Well, we got a whole train ride to waste. Would ya rather tell old war stories? I ain't interested. Prob'ly a snooze-fest."

Tifa shifted in her seat.

"I'd rather have a little silence." Cloud retorted.

"Hmph. Shoulda rode on top of the train again. Nice and quiet up there. Down here where the professionals ride, we're gonna talk shop, ya got it?"

The grey light from outside was choked out. Cloud's eyes adjusted almost immediately. The lights from inside the car illuminated concrete walls rushing past them. They were in the tunnel.

Cloud asked, "How long until the checkpoint?"

"About three minutes," Jessie responded.

"Worried about what it might smell?" Barret asked.

Cloud had to think fast.

"Jessie, you aren't from Midgar, are you?" he asked.

Jessie blushed. "Well, no. I was born in a small village on the West Continent..."

Cloud tuned her out, watching the Shinra man pretend to read a newspaper. The front page simply read: 'TERRORIST STRIKE!' over a blurry picture of yesterday's mushroom cloud rising above Midgar.

Jessie caught on that Cloud wasn't paying attention. "Anyway, it's in ruins now, so who cares?" She darted a nervous look in Barret's direction.

"Join the damn club," Barret sighed. "We all're from the outside world. That's how we know what to do! If we'd've been born here, we'd be as hopeless as everyone in these cities. But we all know better. Tough price to pay, but at least we've got our tracks ahead of us. Our train leads us to the complete tear-down of Shinra. And I ain't stoppin' til I reach the end."

Cloud saw the Shinra man's hand creep under his seat, but didn't realize what it meant until too late.

"Stop him-!" Cloud began.

The lights in the car went out. A shrill buzz hammered on and off. The red emergency bulbs flashed to life.

Wedge covered his ears.

Barret stood up, finding the trigger on his gun-arm. "What in the-!"

The Shinra man released the alarm button under his seat and lunged at Barret. They collided, slamming to the floor. Barret let out a howl as his arm shredded against the steel grating.

Cloud unclipped his sword with such fury that – as he pulled it forward – the tip sliced through the window behind him. The glass shattered. The shards were sucked out into the tunnel. Wind churned through the car.

"Put that thing away!" Barret yelled as he wrestled with the Shinra man. "There's no room for a damn sword!"

Tifa battered her way through the windy car and caught the attacker by the shirt. She ripped him off Barret and threw him to his feet.

"Outta the way!" Barret trained his gun-arm on the man.

Tifa vaulted to the side. Barret fired two short bursts into the Shinra man. The harsh wind sprayed them all with a fine mist of blood.

The alarm throbbed on.

"What do we do!" Wedge screamed, still clutching his head.

"We gotta jump offa this train, that's 'what-do-we-do!'" Barret rose to his feet, rolling his shoulder forward as his own blood dripped slowly toward his elbow. "Everyone, to the back car, now!"

Jessie was the first to the door that connected the cars. She pushed it open, moving without hesitation onto the beam between cars.

Tifa ushered Wedge in front of her.

Cloud clipped his sword back on and shook his head at Barret. "Smart move, leader, riding in the front car."

"In case you ain't noticed, I'm in a shootin' mood!"

"Stop it!" Tifa grabbed Cloud by the arm and knocked him toward the rear door.

At the doorway, Cloud looked at the space between cars. Jessie and Wedge were balancing shakily on the beam that connected them. The door to the other car swung open and Biggs was in the entranceway.

"Hurry!" Biggs reached out a hand.

Jessie lunged forward, grabbing Biggs' forearm. He pulled her into the next car. Wedge tottered precariously on the beam. Biggs stepped onto the beam to help him cross.

Cloud stepped down onto the pole and began to slide his feet along towards the next car.

He looked back for a moment to see Tifa step out cautiously onto the pole. The wind whipped around her and her hair flew about her face. She reached out and Barret held her hand to keep her balance.

Cloud looked down and saw the tracks rushing beneath them.

Biggs and Wedge were safely inside of the next car. Cloud put one leg inside of the car.

A red light flashed above the door to the car.

Cloud remembered the strong hinges on the door.

He pulled back onto the pole.

The door swung shut too fast. Cloud couldn't move quickly enough. He was broadsided by the careening metal. He felt his feet give out and his body fly from the pole.

Tifa watched in horror as Cloud collided with the speeding wall. A flash of sparks from his sword exploded around him and suddenly he was gone.

Tifa stifled a scream, stumbling further onto the pole as the door behind her slammed shut as well, trapping Barret in the front car.

Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie were in the next car. All were sealed tightly by the security doors.

Tifa turned back to the front car, holding the security door for balance. She leaned over and looked at where the train was heading. Just ahead, the track split into two tunnels. She braced herself.

Barret's head emerged from the broken window of the front car. "That's our chance!" he yelled, leaning so far out the window that his hair brushed against the rushing wall.

The train veered towards one track, and Tifa leapt from the pole. Barret launched himself out of the car window and they both hit the split tracks and rolled down the other tunnel as the train rushed by them.

* * *

Barret and Tifa had made it with only a few scratches, but when they backtracked to find Cloud, he was lying in a pool of blood, motionless.

"Is he dead?" Barret asked. Tifa knelt down and rolled him over. His face was mangled, broken and cut. Blood seeped from every orifice. But the faint noise of breath bubbled in the thick blood excreting from his nose.

"Not quite. I don't suppose we have any potions…"

Barret leaned over and grabbed Cloud's belt, picking up the flask that Cloud had acquired on their first mission. He handed it to Tifa, who immediately poured it over Cloud's face. Some of it splashed right off onto the tracks, but most of it went into Cloud through the various holes in his face. Tifa held his head in her arms, close to her.

Barret watched as the red potion began to work. The blood dried and peeled off Cloud's face, the bones he had broken began to swell and take shape again. The flesh that had been burned and peeled off suddenly began to form around his bones. His skin scabbed, his face scarred, but the scars soon went away. He was healing faster than anyone Barret had ever seen, no matter how many potions they had drank.

When it seemed as though Cloud could not look any healthier, he opened his eyes and gasped for air. Tifa let go and he sat up, coughing. He soon stopped, looking at his hands. His clothes remained, for the most part, unscratched. He looked at Tifa and Barret. Confusion washed over him. The last thing he had remembered, he was rolling along a tunnel wall, watching his limbs paint the concrete red, sparks flying into his eyes and immense pain all over. However, in this moment, he seemed fine.

He looked down to the ground where an empty flask sat, used. He realized what had happened. He looked straight at Barret.

"...You touch my stuff again and I'm outta here."

Cloud stood and began to follow the train, walking along the tracks. Barret huffed and Tifa walked along into the darkness.

After thirty minutes of walking, when Cloud first saw the light around the bend, he began to run towards it. Tifa and Barret were close behind, but when they caught up to him, Cloud stood before a sorry sight.

In front of them were light beams going from one wall to the other. There were five beams in total, and there was no way they were getting past them.

"Those light beams are the Shinra security sensors," Cloud said, "We can't go any further. This is the checkpoint for the train, but it is made of the same sensory stuff as the roboguards' vision."

They stood looking at the beams for what seemed like forever before Cloud started looking for a way around them. Against the left wall, there was a small duct which was big enough for Cloud to fit through without his sword on, but he wondered about Barret's enormity, and the size of Tifa's chest. He quickly threw those thoughts out of his head, after all, who knew where Biggs Wedge and Jessie were? Arrested? Killed?

Cloud kicked the grating off the duct. Barret looked towards it with agonizing pain.

"That's one damn tiny hole. You tellin' me to squeeze into that to get under the Plate? No, way!"

Cloud unclipped his sword and threw it down first. It made a clanging noise within seconds. He turned back, smirking at the two, and began to squeeze himself in.

"Man," Barret said. "That thing gives me the chills."

They managed to all fit inside the entrance. Navigating through the air ducts, the three managed to arrive inside the reactor within the hour. The architecture for the Sector 5 reactor was eerily similar to the one of yesterday. As they climbed down into the core chamber, Cloud wondered if all the reactors in Midgar were designed this way. Surely in his home—

Suddenly the quiet hum of the reactors grew into a pulsating noise inside Cloud's skull. He felt the swelling inside his brain, the presence of something else, something greater. What was this? He clutched his head and fell off the ladder, landing with a thud on the walkway below.


	9. Cloud's Recollection: Nemesis

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Cloud's Recollection: Nemesis I**

'_I remember this reactor. It is much more familiar than the one from Sector 5. This is where it happened, right here inside the first mako reactor._

_Tifa stands ahead of me on the walkway. How old was she back then? Fifteen? She's wearing that straw hat she always wore, and the red skirt. Young Tifa._

_She kneels over the body of man, a dead man, a long thin blade sticks out of his back and extends straight up, higher than Tifa, now that she is kneeling. Splattered with blood, the same blood that's dripping off the walkway we are on and into the hissing mako below below us._

"_Papa?" Tifa's voice rings out, echoing against the steel walls, clashing with the calm hum of the reactor. She shakes the body. The realization that he is dead dawns on Tifa and her eyes grow dark._

_I've seen enough. Why am I seeing this? Who is showing this to me? Make it go away, I've seen this before. I don't want to remember it. I've seen enough!_

"_Sephiroth?" she asks the corpse. Sephiroth? I open my eyes, her head tilts to the ceiling, her eyes look dead, and she asks her dead father, "Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he?"_

_She stands up and grabs the hilt of the sword. I have to stop her! I know what's going to happen, maybe if I run, I can get there in time!_

_The headache, the horrible searing pain inside my brain. I can't move, all I can do it crumble onto the walkway, beside Mr. Lockheart's cold dead body. My head is throbbing, my muscles have turned to jelly. I'm helpless._

_Tifa seems not to notice me. Perhaps I am just a spectre. I can't do anything after all._

"_Sephiroth… SOLDIER… mako reactors… Shinra… everything!" She pulls the sword out of her father's back, his body falls lifeless away from me into the mako waste far below. The sword is much too big and heavy for her to handle. As the tip of the blade drags along the floor, she turns towards the doorway in front of her. The end of the walkway, into the room with the pods._

"_I hate them all!" she shouts, the echoes cut though my ears like a million daggers and Tifa is running through the doorway into the light. As her silhouette gives way to the blinding whiteness, it flows around me and consumes me. I hate bright lights. I'm scared. The headache gets worse. I can't… breathe…'_


	10. Book 1: Another Ex SOLDIER

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Another Ex-SOLDIER**

"Damn man!" Barret yelled, as if to wake Cloud up, "Get a hold of yourself!"

Tifa reached her hand down to help Cloud up, he accepted. "You alright?" she asked.

"Tifa…" he stuttered. He wanted to tell her about his vision, that he had recalled her father's death.

Tifa looked at him analytically, as she did often. "Mmmm?" she hummed.

He shook his head. "Forget it, let's keep it moving."

They neared the core and Cloud felt panic rise up in him. He wasn't sure if these episodes were his reaction to mako, or if he was just going crazy. The nauseating stink of mako waste wasn't helping. It wasn't quite a smell, but a thick, humid presence, like the inside of a dying womb. He grabbed the backpack that Barret had worn, getting out the tools for the bomb and setting it. Ten minutes.

He set the timer and looked about the reactor. No alarms, the voiceless message in his head had not given him any false warning, just a recollection of a horrible moment, and the dead, maternal foulness of the mako waste below them.

Barret waited cautiously as well, expecting a surprise attack. None came. Five precious seconds had passed.

Cloud nodded and they sprinted away from the core.

* * *

They began to exit Reactor 5 in the same fashion as they had exited the Reactor 1. They took the elevator and walked along the many corridors, through doors which were easily passable from the inside. They reached the doorway to the overpass.

They ran out onto the bridge, wedged between Sectors 4 and 5. Cloud looked ahead of them towards the centre of the metropolis, and the great ivory tower of Shinra Headquarters.

Something felt amiss. It wasn't a voice in his head, simply his SOLDIER instincts.

Barret ran ahead and turned to the left. He stopped dead in his tracks. It was only in approaching him that Cloud saw why. There were Shinra MPs, about twenty or so, blocking the way to Sector 5. They didn't fire upon Barret. He turned around and began to run towards Sector 4, only to find that twenty more MPs were running towards them from that direction as well.

Both exits were blocked; the only way to go was back into the reactor. Cloud, Tifa and Barret stood in the intersection, looking silently at the forty MPs, guns cocked, shields down.

A whirring was heard from overhead, the three craned their heads upward to see a helicopter descending near the bridge.

"…a trap…" Cloud muttered.

When the helicopter was near enough to the reactor's entrance, and the group no longer had to look up to see it, a ladder dropped down and an old man dressed in crimson began to climb down it.

He was very old, and his white hair was slicked back behind his ears neatly. He had a businessman's white moustache that twitched when he looked down on AVALANCHE. He reached the ramp and stood between the team and the reactor's entrance. In his mouth he puffed on a cigar, and he took it out of his mouth and was about to say something.

"Hmm... So you all must be that... ...what was it?" he smirked.

"AVALANCHE!" Barret shouted, his ego sustaining slight damage, "And don't ya forget it! And you're President Shinra, huh?"

Shinra nodded, puffing a bit more on the cigar. There they stood. The President of the world was a few steps away from them, and nobody was doing anything. Barret, who despite his brash demeanour, could not bear to move. Tifa held her breath and stood by the leader, but Cloud took a few paces towards President Shinra.

"Long time, no see, Mr. President," he said.

Shinra looked Cloud up and down. "...Long time no see?" Shinra did not seem to recognize him, and Cloud seemed hurt, a small bit, Shinra looked into his eyes and saw the mako exposure. He knew in an instant who Cloud was. Shinra had received reports on it, "Oh... you," he said, almost uninterested, "You're the one who quit SOLDIER and joined AVALANCHE. What was your name?"

"Cloud."

Shinra smiled and his moustache twitched. He held the cigar and put his left hand in his pocket. "Forgive me for asking," he said, "but I can't be expected to remember each person's name." He stood for a moment contemplating. "Unless you become another Sephiroth..."

The mere mention of his name sent chills up Cloud's neck.

"Yes, Sephiroth..." Shinra continued, almost longingly. "He was brilliant. Perhaps too brilliant..."

The whir of the helicopter began to turn into a soft ringing noise, but Cloud shook it off. "Sephiroth?" he asked. He needed to know more.

From behind him Barret interrupted the silence. "Don't give a damn 'bout none of that! This place's goin' up with a big BANG soon! Serves y'all right!" He waved his gun in the air. He had found his bearings once more, and Barret was more than ready to end this here.

Shinra paused, took his eyes away from Cloud's and looked at Barret's childish display of anger. "And such a waste of good fireworks, just to get rid of vermin like you..."

"VERMIN?" Barret yelled, dropping his arm and looking bewildered. Shinra seemed to be taking delight in provoking the terrorist. "That's all you can say... vermin! Y'all Shinra're the vermin, killing the Planet! And that makes you King Vermin! So shu'up jackass!"

"...You are beginning to bore me. I'm a very busy man, so if you'll excuse me... I have a dinner I must attend."

Shinra grabbed the ladder and began to climb.

"Dinner? Don't gimme that! I ain't even start wit' you yet!"

But it was too late. Shinra was already in the helicopter and the ladder was being brought up with it. Cloud contemplated running to try and catch the ladder, but it was too late. The helicopter flew out of sight and the MPs were beginning to retreat. Barret and Tifa began to run after them. Cloud noticed that they were leaving and started to follow.

"Don't let them get away!" one of the MPs shouted.

One of the MPs tossed something at Cloud, and when it hit the bridge it exploded, sending Cloud hurtling upwards into the air. Tifa and Barret barely dodged the explosion, landing safely at the entrance to Sector 4.

The blast had created a huge gap in the bridge. Cloud tumbled into the gap, and his hand fired out – lightning fast – and grabbed a steel pipe jutting out from under the bridge.

He hung precariously from the pipe, unable to climb up. He was across the gap from Tifa and Barret.

The bomb went off inside the core of the reactor. Large crashing noises were heard from inside the building.

"It's gonna blow! Let's go Tifa!" Barret shouted.

"Barret, can't you do something?" Tifa pleaded and ran as close to the edge as she could get.

"Not a damn thing," Barret said.

Tifa knelt down and reached for Cloud's hand. "Cloud! Please don't die! You can't die! There's still so much I want to tell you!"

"…I know, Tifa." Cloud muttered.

He looked down at the slums – fifty metres below him. There was so much dust in the air, he could not see the buildings below him.

Flames began to lick the bridge from the reactor entrance.

The heat scolded Cloud's hand and he let go, falling into the smoke.

Tifa cried out and reached over the edge, almost falling herself before Barret caught her. He dragged her into Sector 4. Her legs eventually took control and they ran through Sector 4 as the reactor blew. The shockwave hit them as they were running and they were knocked into the air.

Meanwhile, Cloud continued to fall. As he fell, he started to spin and flip, his vision becoming a blurry collage of red from the fires above and grey from the ground below. Every so often, he would catch a glimpse of the pillar. It seemed like he was falling forever. He fell until he passed out, not knowing what he would hit.


	11. Book 1: Flowers Blooming in the Church

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**Flowers Blooming in the Church**

**_Are you all right? Can you hear me?_**

Hearing was a particularly cruel choice of words. Cloud was unsure of how to respond. The words were certainly perceived, but heard? He didn't think so. Had they been heard, Cloud might have been able to recognize a voice, but all that came through was the words. Cloud was beginning to think it was himself giving the messages; the way people associate the words of a book with their own narration.

It was all dark. Cloud didn't know if he was all right. He didn't know if he was alive. '_Yeah,' _Cloud thought, and, to make sure it knew he wasn't all right, clarified_, 'I can hear you.'_

**_Back then… you could get by with just skinned knees…_**

'_What do you mean by "back then"?'_

…**_What about now? Can you get up?_**

'_What do you mean by "back then"? What about now?'_

**_Don't worry about me... You just worry about yourself now…_**

'…_I'll give it a try,'_ he thought. Pain shot through his body. He was still alive, apparently.

"Oh!" came a sudden voice – a real voice. "It moved!"

The voice was a woman's.

**_How about that? Take it slow now. Little by little._**

"Hello?" the woman asked. "Hello?"

'_Hey…'_ Cloud thought. _'Who are you?'_

There came no response.

"Hello hello!" the woman pleaded, begging Cloud to return to reality.

With a great deal of effort, his eyelids slid open. He was staring at a large wall, lined with enormous wooden beams. There was a great hole in the wall, and beyond, far away was what appeared to be the upper plate. It was then that he realized that he was not staring at a wall, but a ceiling. He was lying belly-up on the ground, not suspended on the opposite wall. His bearings slowly came back to him. From the steeped roof, chandeliers hung from the rafters and reached towards him.

Through the hole in the roof, he saw the exterior of the reactor – like the cracked remains of an eggshell. Cleanup crews had already finished their work. Compared to the first bombing, the damage was minimal. Of course, Cloud sighed, they were alerted to it before the mission had even finished.

He was in a church, he realized, as his eyes travelled down the walls made of white stone, glancing at the stained glass windows. This church was from the time before Midgar arose, when Sector 5 had a name, when the people had a belief in the spiritual. Such was nonsense now, in the age of logic.

"You okay?"

He looked at the woman. She stood by his feet, so he had to lift his head to see her. She stood, leaned over with her head cocked to the side. She wore a pink dress and a short red cropped jacket, very worn. He recognized her immediately, not from her clothes, but from her eyes. As their eyes met, she seemed to peer right into his soul, as if she was grabbing inside of him.

"This is a church in the Sector 5 slums. The ceiling suddenly fell on top of me. It really gave me a scare." She smiled.

Cloud was half bewildered at the sight of the girl again, and half bewildered that his neck was not broken. "I came crashing down?" he asked, already knowing the answer was 'yes.' He fell fifty metres, yet not a bone was broken. It certainly was strange, even for a first class member of SOLDIER. No one could have survived that fall, but he had. Why? Surely it was no divine intervention; religion was for Wutaians, and the old Ancient race long extinct.

"The roof and the flower bed must have broken your fall. You're lucky." She said.

Luck. A fool's bulwark. The new religion. Cloud would sooner blame the lingering effects of the phoenix down. Maybe he had been too harsh on Barret, especially if he was…

"Flower bed?" Cloud looked around.

The church was old, and one could tell it hadn't had a proper mass in a long time. A few of the pews were missing and those still left were crooked. Where Cloud lay, the floorboards had been ripped out of the ground and there was grass poking through. To his left, his sword had stuck itself into the ground, splitting a flower in two. _'Oh_,' he thought,_ 'There they are.'_

His guilt gave him strength to rise through the pain in his body. He cracked his neck and pulled the sword from the flower. The split bell crumpled to the ground, and Cloud was reminded of his old mentor's words: only things that are truly alive can die.

"Is this yours?" he inquired about the flower bed. "I'm sorry."

"That's all right. The flowers here are quite resilient because this is a sacred place." She said. He wondered if she was serious. "They say you can't grow things in Midgar. But for some reason, the flowers have no trouble blooming here."

Cloud glanced over the flower bed. There was a depressed-looking patch in the middle, where he had flattened numerous flowers – but even now they were righting themselves. The high powered lights from the top plate flooded through the hole in the roof in thick streams, shining on the flowers like sunlight. Cloud felt warm, in a way he hadn't felt since the last time he felt grass. It had been years – he had forgotten what he was missing.

"I love it here." The flower girl said as she knelt down beside her flower bed. As she tended to the crushed flowers, she said softly. "We meet again."

"Yeah," he said, "you were selling flowers during the riot."

"You remember," she glanced up at him and smiled. "Thank you for helping me out... Looks like you're in the wrong place at the wrong time again."

"The reactor, you mean?" Cloud looked up again through the hole in the roof, but he couldn't see the damage from where he was standing. "You're here too, that makes two of us."

"You're not fooling anyone. This church is directly below the entrance to the reactor. Don't worry, I won't report you."

"Who's worried?"

She smiled and continued with her work. Cloud was unsure of what to do, so he stood perfectly still. He felt clumsy.

"Say," she used an old small-talk standard, "do you have any materia?"

"Yes some," Cloud said. He grabbed a green orb and held it out for her to inspect. "Nowadays you can find materia anywhere."

'_Although,' _he thought,_ 'Just because everyone owns a stone or two doesn't mean everyone is a wizard.'_

The flower girl smiled at his remark, reaching behind her and grabbing her long ponytail. She swung it around and turned her head to the right, showcasing her hair-bow and the pale orb that was stuck in there.

"But mine is special." She said. "It's good for absolutely nothing."

Cloud shook his head. "Good for nothing? You probably just don't know how to use it." And that wouldn't have been uncommon. He wondered why she might think otherwise.

She dropped her ponytail, almost insulted at the notion. She grabbed the crystal out of Cloud's hands.

"Hey!" Cloud protested.

"What kind of materia is this?" she asked.

"I don't know," Cloud said, "I found it inside a mako reactor. It's not one of mine; I haven't been trained to use it."

The flower girl closed her eyes, and the orb in her hand began to glow. Cloud suddenly felt a wave of euphoria wash over him, reminding him of the arousing side-effects of drinking a potion. He felt his body convulse involuntarily. If he wasn't being forced into feeling so great, he would have been embarrassed. The lingering shock and pain from the fall was swallowed by this rapture.

The orb stopped glowing and Cloud returned from his uncomfortable foray into bliss. The pain was gone – for good.

"I _do_ know how to use them," the flower girl said. "Your materia crystal has healing properties, but it's mine now!" Laughing, she put the orb behind her and threw her head up, motioning to the pale stone on her head. "This one just doesn't do anything. I feel safe having it. It was my mother's…" the flower girl's eyes went very absent for a moment. She seemed to stare right through Cloud. She sighed and her eyes came back to meet his. "Say, I feel like talking. Do you feel up to it? After all, here we are meeting again, right?"

"I don't mind," Cloud said, poker face in full force.

The flower girl smiled, then turned and knelt down and resumed poking at her flowers. "I've got to check my flowers. It'll just be a minute."

Cloud stood behind her, resisting the urge to stare at her form from the back. She got on her hands and knees and started to play with the flowers. She seemed so innocent, like a child, and yet, she was most likely older than him.

He stood stiffly behind her. Where had she put that materia? He remembered her putting it behind her back, but he couldn't see it anywhere. There was nothing to clip it to.

The flower girl stopped and stood. She turned to the mercenary. "We don't know each other's names, do we?" she asked. He had been so wrapped up in their meeting, and the strange circumstance of his survival that he hadn't really cared one way or the other. It had been a nice meeting until then, and knowing a name wouldn't sour the moment.

"I'm Aeris Gainsborough," she said with a smile.

"The name's Cloud."

"I'm a flower girl," Aeris said, knowing full well that Cloud was aware of her profession. It was simply a way to coax him into talking to her.

"Me? I do a little bit of everything," he said, trying to sound cool. He did not.

"Ohh," she said. "A jack of all trades."

"Yeah, I do whatever's needed." He felt stupid.

"Mmm. And if someone needed to blow up a couple of reactors?"

"They'd have to pay me quite a bit."

"Have you ever been a bodyguard?"

"What?" He looked at her, but she was looking past him, at a menacing figure in the doorway of the church.


	12. Book 1: Reno of the Turks

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**Reno of the Turks**

The church in Sector 5 had a tall, double-door entrance made of real elmwood. The doors were open into the slum streets, which were so awash in artificial light that from Cloud's position in the shaded church it looked like the world outside the doors was pure light. Cloud never cared much for brightness. He told himself it was his sensitive mako eyes.

Standing in the doorway was a man. He had loosely thrown on his dark blue suit. His undershirt was un-tucked and unkempt. Atop his head sat his sunglasses - unnecessary in Midgar, which meant he either had spent time outside of the city, or they were ornamental and (Cloud decided) obnoxious. His hair was a brilliant red, and it hung loosely around his head. At the back it was tied into a thin ponytail.

He was flanked by two Shinra MPs.

"Get me out of here," Aeris said, "Take me home."

He turned and looked at her. Weren't they after him? What did Shinra want with her? Was this why she had run from him in the alley?

"Okay, I'll do it," he said, "but it'll cost you."

"Well then, let's see," Aeris didn't have any money, "How about if I go out with you once?"

"What?"

But her stare didn't fade. She was being whimsical, but her eyes screamed for help. Cloud nodded and turned to the door. He began to walk towards the three men, hand ready to grab his sword.

"I don't know who you are, but..." Cloud started. But as he neared him, the face started to become familiar. His sneering face was thin, with slit turquoise eyes and a very thin nose. He didn't remember where or how he had met this person.

The man smirked at Cloud. "You don't know me?"

Suddenly, there was a flash in front of Cloud's eyes, his head twitched. Something inside his brain woke up. There was someone else in there, someone who knew this man.

**_I know you…_**

"Oh yeah," Cloud said, looking the man up and down. "I know you… that uniform…"

This man was a Turk.

The MP called to the Turk. "Hey, Reno! Want him taken out?"

"I haven't decided yet," Reno said. He continued his snake-like smirk and eyed Cloud.

"Don't fight here!" Aeris shouted, "You'll ruin the flowers!"

Suddenly she ran towards the back of the church. Cloud followed, sprinting as fast as he could. As he ran down the aisle, past the crooked benches and towards the flower bed, Aeris ran to the left and into a doorway. Passing the altar, he followed.

Reno walked slowly through the church. "They were... mako eyes…" he said to himself as the MPs walked alongside. "Get the girl." He said to them, stepping into the flower bed. He suddenly stopped and turned to the two of them. "Oh," he added, "And don't step on the flowers."

As he turned and trudged through the rest of the flowers, the MPs shouted out.

"Hey Reno, you just stepped through them!"

"They're all ruined! You're going to catch Holy Hell!"

* * *

The staircase was wooden and creaky, and she ran up it with a speed that rivalled Cloud's. She reached the top of the staircase before he caught up with her. The back of the church was a large open area, the staircase had no railing and either side dropped off below into the basement. It led to the rafters, and the great gaping hole where Cloud had tumbled through. So that was where she was headed.

"There they are, over there!" Reno shouted.

"The Ancient is getting away!" One of the MPs slung his gun into his hands. "Attack!"

A spray of bullets blasted up the stairs at them.

Cloud's armlet blocked some bullets with a swipe of his forearm, but a bullet clipped cleanly through Aeris' shoulder. She twisted and fell off the staircase.

"Aeris!" Cloud shouted.

On her plummet towards the basement, Aeris' body seemed to glow green for a moment, and Cloud saw the bloody wound close. She was definitely an experienced magic user – either that or she had a natural talent unlike any Cloud had ever seen.

She landed on her back in the dirt. Dust kicked up around her and shrouded her.

The MPs looked down into the basement.

"Think we killed her?" Reno asked.

"Shouldn't have put up a fight, I say!" one of the MPs shouted.

The MPs began down a winding stair into the open basement. Aeris righted herself and looked up through the dust at Cloud. Cloud looked down at her from the high staircase.

"Cloud! Help!" she shouted.

Cloud looked around. His eyes wandered frantically until something caught his attention. Up in the rafters, there was a barrel positioned almost exactly where the MPs were headed. He bolted up the staircase.

Some bodyguard he was making out to be. Well, he reasoned as he ran, everything has a learning curve.

He was on the rafters now. The wood creaked with every small step he made. He shuffled towards the barrel, and when he reached it he grabbed onto it for balance. He looked down. Aeris had noticed his plan and had moved out of the way of the barrel.

He found the barrel surprisingly heavy, but he forced it off the wooden beam.

The barrel tumbled off of the wooden rafter, plummeting towards the basement. It landed on one MP, the weight and speed of it killed him instantly.

The second MP jumped when the barrel hit, taken by surprise. He looked up at Cloud, who stood on the rafters. He frantically shot into the air. They all missed, making bullet holes in the roof where light shone through in strings.

Cloud looked down at the MP and Aeris, who stood face to face. The MP was stepping closer every second, but Aeris didn't seem to move. Cloud felt helpless, from so high above.

Aeris' hands were slowly creeping behind her back as the MP moved cautiously closer.

The attack came so swiftly it took a moment for Cloud to register it. Aeris' arms reached their destination behind her back, and suddenly in a blur the MP was knocked to the ground, blood spraying all over the basement.

Aeris ran towards the staircase, trying to avoid getting blood on her dress. In her arms she held a long metal quarterstaff, drenched in red and lined with materia.

The weapon had come out of nowhere, with such ferocity. Cloud instantly knew that she didn't need a bodyguard at all. What, then, had all that to-do been about?

Reno had disappeared, and the way seemed clear, so Aeris ran up the staircase onto the main floor, and then started climbing towards the rafters to meet up with her bodyguard.

With a flash, the quarterstaff was gone and Aeris stood there, looking innocently at the man she had pleaded to help her. She seemed more than equipped to help herself. But the more Cloud thought about that, the more he realized that he didn't care.

"Let's hurry before more come!" Aeris urged.

They crept along the rafters until they reached the large hole in the roof. It was easily accessible from the rafters, and they climbed out of it and onto the roof of the church.

Aeris sat down on the shingles and Cloud joined her. "This should be safer. Let's rest here for a bit." Aeris sighed.

Behind the church, down the way, was the reactor. The explosion had been contained to the best of Shinra's ability. Cloud stared at the cracked metal, sussing out what happened. The commotion on the train must have alerted them to the mission. Cleanup crews and diffusion teams first, the Shinra army second. Personal visit from the President, third.

On either side of the reactor were the curving city gates, encircling the city, with glass and metal walls that reached up to connect with the top plate. Beyond the gates was nothing but wasted lands.

Cloud checked on Aeris, she wasn't wounded. She even seemed proud as she said, "They're looking for me again."

"You mean it's not the first time they've been after you?"

"No," she said, still smiling but Cloud could tell that it had not always been this easy.

"They're the Turks," he said. Aeris hummed in acknowledgement. "The Turks are an organization in Shinra. They scout for possible candidates for SOLDIER."

"This violently? I thought they were kidnapping someone."

"They're also involved in a lot of dirty stuff on the side. Spying, murder... you know."

"They look like it." She looked back towards the hole in the roof, into the church.

Reno was walking back through the flower bed. They watched from the rooftop as he exited the church alone, and ran further into Sector 5. He was soon shielded from their view by large chunks of metal and buildings constructed entirely of plywood.

Even from up there, the slums were not pretty. They were horrific. They could see gangs bursting through doors made of chicken wire, terrorizing the residents within. Why did Aeris live here? Even the Sector 7 slums were safer than this. She'd be safer from the Turks in any case.

"Why is Shinra after you?" Cloud asked, "There must be a reason, right?"

Aeris became very still. "No, not really. I think they believe I have what it takes to be in SOLDIER."

"Maybe you do. You want to join?"

"I don't know..." she said, thinking deeply.

"But I don't want to get caught by _those_ people!" she added.

"Then let's go!" Cloud said, and stood up. He walked to the peak of the roof until he found another roof that looked safe enough to jump to. He jumped and made the landing easily. He continued to the edge of that roof and looked.

"Wait!" Aeris yelled, running to the edge of the church roof. "Wait I said!" She paused at the end, looking down and examining the distance. She prepared herself and began rocking back and forth, preparing to jump. She did, and barely made it. She ran across the roof towards Cloud. When she got there, she was out of breath. She bent over and put her hands on her knees, panting. "Slow… down... Don't leave me..."

Cloud smiled proudly. "Funny," he mocked, "I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER."

"Oh you're terrible!" she swung her arms to her sides and caught her breath.

He turned and prepared for the next jump. "Hey Cloud," she asked. He stopped and turned around. "Were you ever in SOLDIER?"

She had guessed correctly, although Cloud could see how. He survived a fifty metre fall and wielded a huge sword. "I used to be. How did you guess?"

"Your eyes," she said, "They have a strange glow..."

"That's the sign of those who have been infused with mako," Cloud explained, "But, how did you know about that?"

Aeris bit her lip. "Oh…nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Right, nothing!" Aeris replied quickly enough for Cloud's suspicion to be subdued. Aeris Gainsborough, the flower girl, jumped to the next roof leaving Cloud behind. She turned to him. "Come on, let's go, bodyguard!"


	13. Book 1: Sick Man

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**Sick Man**

On the way through Sector 5, past the shops and the rubble, Aeris stopped only once. There was a large pipe big enough to walk in, and she wandered inside without notice. Cloud was surprised by her sudden disappearance, and followed her hastily.

The pipe lead nowhere – it was blocked off by a makeshift wall of sheet metal. Shelves had been created on the rounded walls of the pipe, and they were filled with books, trophies, pictures, and assorted gadgets. A light fixture was glued to the ceiling of the pipe, and the wire was glued along the top, leading out of the pipe.

At the foot of the sheet metal wall, there was a bed made of dead straw. Aeris stood beside the, looking at the man who sat there.

The sick man was normally dressed, sitting upright and looking out of the pipe. His eyes were the problem. They were glazed over to the point of completely colourless, no pupil, just white. The man's head bobbed back and forth as if he were falling asleep. The mere sight of this man made Cloud recoil at first, but Aeris turned to him.

"I know this man. He's sick. For years now he's been sick. He can't talk anymore. I don't know what's wrong with him. He hasn't eaten, not to my knowledge, but somehow he's alive."

Cloud inspected the man, who gargled something but it wasn't words. His head bobbed back and forth as he just sat there.

On his wrist was a tattooed number. Cloud leaned closely and inspected the number.

"Two… What do you make of that tattoo?"

Aeris looked at it. "I never thought much of it, but he's had it since before he was sick. He's had it my entire life."

Cloud stood in silence for a while. "What do you want me to do?"

"What? Nothing."

"I'm not a doctor."

"I know."

"I don't know what's wrong with him. I don't know what we're doing here." Cloud wanted to leave – badly. The all-white eyes were, frankly, creeping him out. "Look, please understand, I feel bad. But you could catch something."

"I haven't yet."

"I'll be waiting outside."

Cloud turned and left the pipe. After a short while, Aeris followed.

* * *

"Mom! I'm home!"

Aeris lived with her mother, Elmyra Gainsborough. Of course, Cloud assumed Elmyra wasn't her real mother. After all, Aeris had spoken of her mother in the past tense earlier. And Elmyra and Aeris did not look similar at all. Aeris shone with purity, Elmyra was, well, quite ugly, at least physically. Without makeup, dressed in a ramshackle old pinafore, she looked like some humanoid ghoul from fairy tales.

The main hall of Aeris' house was carpeted, with the round dining table and two chairs. To the left there was a staircase leading to the upper level, and to the right was the doorway into the kitchen.

Elmyra walked into the main hall carrying a tray. On it was a teapot and two cups. The sight of each other made the two strangers jump. Elmyra was surprised at the weapon-wielding man in her hall, and Cloud was appalled at Elmyra's unsightliness.

Aeris grabbed Cloud's arm, and her touch felt soft and cool. "This is Cloud, my bodyguard."

"Bodyguard? You mean you were followed again?" Elmyra hurriedly put the tray down on the table and walked towards Aeris. "Are you all right? You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm all right. I had Cloud with me."

Elmyra turned to Cloud, and she looked into his eyes. He looked back, and, while she was not pretty, Elmyra had a sincerity that most people lacked. She looked at him with complete gratitude, but the longer she looked the more her smile turned into fear. She looked into his eyes and didn't see his heart. She saw bright glowing blue. She tried to hide it. "Thank you Cloud."

Elmyra sat at the table and poured herself some tea.

Aeris turned to Cloud. "So what are you going to do now?"

Cloud watched Elmyra drinking her tea. "Is Sector 7 far from here? I'd like to go to Tifa's Bar."

"Is Tifa… a girl?" Aeris asked.

Cloud looked at her. He had forgotten completely that Aeris and Tifa did not know each other. After all, Aeris had given Tifa a flower, however indirectly. "Yes," he replied.

"A girl… friend?"

"What! No way!"

Aeris giggled. "You don't have to get worked up about it. Let's see, Sector 7? I'll show you the way." She perked up and gave Cloud a big toothy smile.

"You gotta be kidding. Why do you want to put yourself in danger again?"

"I'm used to it," she said.

"Used to it!" Cloud then remembered how dangerous she seemed back in the church. He wondered how much of it her mother knew of it, for she was acting as if Aeris was still a child.

"I don't know…" he said, feeling warm pride wash over him. "Getting help from a girl…"

"A girl! What do you mean by that?" Aeris backed up and put her hands on her waist. "You expect me to just sit by and listen, after hearing you say something like that?"

Aeris then turned to Elmyra, who had stopped drinking her tea and was watching the two bicker.

"Mom," Aeris said. "I'm taking Cloud to Sector 7. I'll be back in a while."

Elmyra put down her tea quickly and rose. "But dear…"

Aeris stood with her hands on her hips, as did Elmyra. They looked at each other for only a moment before Elmyra sat back down. "I give up. You never listen once you've made up your mind." There was a pause, and then Elmyra's head lifted, looking at the two of them, "But if you must go, why don't you go tomorrow? It's getting late now."

Cloud detected a small smile curling at the corner of her mouth, but it was quickly killed when Aeris replied. "Yeah, you're right mom."

Cloud looked out the window. It looked the same as it always did in the slums, the only difference between night and day was the ratio of hoodlums wandering the streets.

"Aeris," Elmyra said, "Please go make the guest bed for Cloud." Aeris nodded quickly and ran upstairs. Elmyra offered Cloud tea with a simple hand motion, but he shook his head.

"Your eyes," she finally said. "You are a SOLDIER?"

"I was," Cloud replied.

"I don't know how to say this..." Elmyra hesitated, but still looking straight at him. "Would you leave tonight? Without telling Aeris?"

Cloud nodded. He had the same idea in mind. He walked upstairs.

There were three doors past the staircase. The first was closed, and had a little sign on it. Scrawled in pen was the name Aeris, obviously written when she was small, for some of the letters were backwards and the lines crudely shaken. The next door was open, and inside Aeris was making the bed. The last door, he assumed, was Elmyra's and her husband's, if she had one. He walked into the guest bedroom, once again avoiding eye contact with Aeris' figure. She stood up and turned around.

"You need to go through Sector 6 to get to Sector 7. Sector 6 is a little dangerous so you'd better get some rest tonight. Cloud... Good night."

As she walked by him, he could smell the scent of real flowers on her. She blew him a kiss and closed the door.


	14. Cloud's Recollection: Cloud's Mother

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**Cloud's Recollection: Cloud's Mother I**

…_**seem pretty tired…**_

'_What!'_

_**I haven't slept in a bed like this… in a long time.**_

'…_Oh, yeah."_

_**Ever since that time…**_

'_Yeah, that time in Nibelheim. I remember now, like a light has just been turned on inside of my head. My old room, unchanged after all those years away. I had outgrown this bed, but I had a nap anyway. The nap was nice. I was woken up._

_The sound of my mother coming up the stairs always used to wake me up. She walked slower now, but she was still a vibrant woman. The creaking of the stairs stopped and she came into my room._

"_My, how you've grown," she said. I was sixteen then, and legally a man. I hadn't seen her since I left to become a SOLDIER. This visit was nice, but I wasn't into it. I was at that age, you know. Mom continued, "I'll be the girls never leave you alone."_

_I sighed, "Not really."_

_Mom slowly walked towards the bed, "…I'm worried about you." Of course she was, she was my mother. "There are a lot of temptations in the city…" Oh, that's what she meant. I suddenly felt like I wanted to nap again. "I'd feel a lot better if you just settled down and had a nice girlfriend."_

"_I'm alright," I shrugged. I felt the friction of my shirt against the bed, and static electricity charged up._

_I hate static. It's not worth complaining about, but it smarts like hell. When I know I'm statically charged, I'll avoid metallic things like doorknobs, but to let on that I'm avoiding them would be embarrassing._

"_You should have… an older girlfriend, one that'll take care of you. I think that would be the perfect type for you."_

_An older girlfriend. Had. Girls who were older than me had no interest in me. Even girls younger than me didn't care. I hadn't even seen Tifa since I returned. I guess we weren't good friends after all. The girls in Midgar, they were either whores, slumlings or too rich to be interested in a SOLDIER. I could wait until I was a hero. No need to rush._

"…_I'm not interested…"'_


	15. Book 1: The Chocobo Cart

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

**The Chocobo Cart**

Cloud awoke from his dream. He was lying in the bed. He wasn't sure what time it was. That non-voice had come back to him in his dream. Maybe it was just his restless mind. He looked at the clock. Three in the morning.

He stood up and equipped himself quietly. The door didn't creak when he opened it, and for that he was thankful. In closing it, he held the knob turned to avoid the door's usual clicking noise.

The door to Aeris' room was closed, and he crept beyond it, walking along the bookshelf in the hallway. Ontop of the bookshelves were numerous vases filled with flowers from Aeris' church. The entire house, it seemed, was almost a garden, a wonderful change from the rest of the slums. The closer he got to the staircase, the more he wanted to stay, Aeris had completely captivated him. In his endless sea of doubt, he realized that his boots were making far too much noise for this hour in the morning. He made himself lighter on his toes and hurried down the stairs.

He got to the bottom of the staircase and moved silently past the empty round table. He opened the door and left without any more hesitation.

* * *

There weren't any street signs in Sector 5, not even the distinct roads that made Sector 7 so easily navigable. Hovels made of sheet metal sprung up pretty much anywhere. A huge jumbotron screen broadcasted snow off in the distance, and the static sound of the screen made the silence all the stickier. The old Midgar ambience.

Cloud could barely hear his own footsteps over all the non-noise, but then a ghoulish wail rose up in the night. He halted and looked for the source. He couldn't see anything except the dust settling on his footsteps.

The moaning still echoed through the night. When Cloud thought it had finally died away, it rose up again – louder, more harrowing than before.

Cloud began to walk again, his pace quickening. His right arm was at attention, ready to spring towards the handle of his sword as soon as his reflexes told him to. The more he wandered through the random springs of houses, the closer the wails became.

Cloud was creeping now, along the shadow of an armour shop. The source of the noise was just around the corner. He turned to look.

He saw the entrance to the pipe. He was on too much of an angle to properly see inside, but he knew that there was no trouble. Just the sick man, gurgling and howling in his ailment.

Cloud eased up, let his muscles relax.

Within the pipe came the loudest and longest wail yet. Cloud felt it reverberate down his spine. His muscles tensed back up.

'_It's nothing_,' he told himself. '_Just some slum disease_.' He felt differently about it, however. There was more to this than the bum on the train with the coroner's knees. It felt a little close to home.

He considered his recent... episodes. He considered what happened to him. If his eyes became milky, or if he howled like the undead.

He wondered if the sick man was hearing voices. Mister Number II...

The cries continued to rattle through the pipe and into the early morning. Cloud tried to shake off his goosebumps. He forced his legs to carry him away from the pipe.

* * *

The gate to Sector 6 was clearly visible but as Cloud approached it, he noticed a figure standing, silhouetted. Cloud stopped dead in his tracks; all fell silent except for the never-ending screams of the sick man.

The silhouette stood motionless. From this distance, Cloud saw a long coat, maybe a trench-coat. Combat boots and a long, thin weapon. Cloud held his breath. The masamune? Sephiroth's sword?

But Sephiroth was…

Cloud inspected the silhouette upon moving closer to it. In every way it looked like …**him**… down to the long garment, the long flowing hair with the strands in front. The abnormally long and thin instrument of death. Then the figure backed into the light.

"Aeris!" Cloud yelled.

Aeris stood, smiling innocently. In her hand she held her staff, tightly, for it was just past three in the morning and there were thieves about. The trench-coat Cloud had seen had been nothing more than her dress, the sword her staff. He had almost tricked himself into seeing Sephiroth's ghostly white hair. But her long braid was clearly a light brunette. He sighed in relief. She was not **him**. She was not Sephiroth.

The wails and moans from the sick man continued.

"You're up bright and early," she said.

"How could I ask you to go along when I knew it would be dangerous?"

Aeris put her staff behind her and crossed her arms. "Are you done?" Cloud shut up. "Good. Can we go now?"

Aeris turned and walked into the light. The way she turned, it gave Cloud the chills. It looked all too familiar. Aeris walked off calmly out of sight, and Cloud gave chase.

* * *

It took them eight hours to navigate Sector 6. The piles of debris were highest here. Up above, Sector 6 was where the factories were. When machinery went out of date, when products and metals were broken, they would drop them down into the slums. No one lived in most of Sector 6. There were a few housing areas, but mostly it was just wasteland, a place where creeps went to await their prey.

With Cloud's abnormally large sword in plain sight, they didn't get much trouble. With Aeris' mysteriously hidden quarterstaff, any trouble that did come their way was dealt with quickly.

They arrived at the Sector 7 gate at one in the afternoon on Saturday, January sixth. There weren't any clocks nearby, but there was a low moan of dozens of distant whistles.

Two days since the first bombing. Five years and two days since **his** death. Numbers buzzed through the back of Cloud's mind. He wondered when it had become so important to remember dates. Since arriving in Midgar, he supposed. Everything here was time, and place. Once, **he** had said, "The time and place of a memory is all that can be trusted. Everything else is hearsay." **He** had said many things.

Two Shinra MPs stood at the closed gate to Sector 7. They watched Aeris and Cloud appear from behind a tower of reeking compost. Between them was a ruined playground the size of a small city block.

Cloud looked through the playground at the gate. The wall between Sectors was the standard twenty metres of straight metal – impossible to climb. It would be tricky to get past the guards without notice.

He turned to Aeris. "I guess this is goodbye. Are you going to be all right getting home?"

She feigned weakness. "Oh no! Whatever shall I do? Is that what you want me to say?" He had no witty rejoinder. Aeris continued. "'Take me to Sector 7', I could say that. But won't I be in the way?"

"What do you mean 'in the way'?" Cloud asked.

Aeris shook her head and smiled. "Nothing," she said. "Can we take a break?"

She took a few steps into the ruined playground. It may have been remnants of when Sector 6 wasn't just a pile of garbage. Among broken swings, there only stood one structure that seemed intact. It was a large plastic dome, in the shape of a moogle's head. Out of its mouth, a children's sized slide projected and led down into the dirt. Out of the back of its head were a few stairs for children to climb up, running through the hollow head and sliding down to safety. The plastic had been browned by years of dirt, but Aeris seemed to recognize it.

Walking towards it, Aeris said with some bewilderment, "I can't believe it's still here." She turned around and tilted her head playfully, beckoning Cloud to join her on the slide. He followed.

Aeris toed up the stairs, but it was clear that she could no longer fit inside the moogle's head. She climbed atop and sat between its ears. Cloud followed up the stairs and sat beside her. They looked into the heaps of junk that they had just crossed. _'For a possible candidate of SOLDIER'_, Cloud thought, _'she sure does a lot of sitting.'_

"What rank were you?" she asked.

"Rank?" Cloud asked back, snapping back into conversation.

"You know, in SOLDIER." Aeris wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees.

"Oh," he said, "I was--"

He thought back. Why didn't he know off the top of his head? He began to remember when he had become a SOLDIER, what rank he was… he didn't quite know… he couldn't…

Suddenly Cloud's thoughts melded together and he became suddenly very dizzy, his vision spiralling into a white flash. He shook his head. All was well. Of course, how could he have forgotten? It was…

"First class."

"Just the same as him." Aeris said calmly.

She couldn't have meant the same him that Cloud was thinking of. She had just said 'him.' Not '**him**.'

"The same as who?"

Aeris extended her legs off the top of the moogle's head and leaned back, looking straight ahead. "My first boyfriend."

"You were… serious?" he felt a green flush in his cheeks. She had only said 'first' boyfriend, but the idea of her, possibly sitting on this slide with another man troubled him, and he didn't know why. They had just met. There was too much going on inside Cloud's head for him to be worried about girl troubles. He looked at Aeris, her face nostalgic.

"No," she lied. "We weren't serious. But I liked him for a while."

"I probably knew him. What was his name?"

Aeris just stared into the distance. "It doesn't really matter."

The silence that followed was more uncomfortable for Cloud than it should have been. Aeris didn't seem to mind it, her eyes traced over the broken playground toys, some half-buried in grime and soot. Cloud scanned the area. The Sector 6 pillar stood proudly nearby, holding the plate above them. Metal cables creaked above them.

The gate to Sector 7 began to slide open – someone had been approved to enter from the other side. The startled MPs quickly moved to each side of the gate. Their heads turned to see what was coming through. Aeris' large ponytail had gotten in Cloud's vision – he had to lean forward to see why the door was opening. Who from Sector 7 would willingly enter Sector 6?

The chocobo entered slowly. It was well over six feet tall, with two powerful looking legs, two weak looking wings and a long craning neck. Its head was large, with two great black eyes staring at them blankly. Its beak was the only thing on its body that wasn't covered in yellow feathers, and it seemed to twist into a vacant smile. It tilted its head at its new surroundings, until the reins snapped the bird back to attention. The chocobo moved forward, putting one double toed foot in front of the other, which was uncharacteristic for chocobos. In fact, to see them being used in a city was quite the rarity. Chocobos usually inhabited the wilderness, running freely with little or no purpose in life. However, they could be trained for riding, pulling carts, and a more recent development showed that some people even liked racing chocobos for money, and men such as the famous Chocobo Joe had made a living off of being a jockey.

This chocobo had been well groomed and well taken care of. It towed a four-wheeled cart made of painted wood. It was very small, a two-person at most. The roof was made of purple cloth, and out of each corner hung a small lantern that lit the inside of the cart. Sitting on the top of the cart was the driver, who wore a large brimmed hat and had a massive brown beard. He held the reins of the chocobo.

The cart passed through the gate and turned towards the main pillar, or to Cloud and Aeris' right. As it turned, Cloud noticed an open window out of the back of the cart. Leaning out was a woman in a blue dress. She looked at the ground behind her as the cart pulled towards another maze of rubble.

"Huh?" Cloud asked, standing up. He squinted his eyes at the girl in the cart. She was looking down, her long black hair falling in front of her face. "Hey back there!" he shouted. The cart continued to move until it was out of sight. "Tifa!" he asked himself out loud.

"That girl in the cart was Tifa?" Aeris said. "Where was she going?" and then, as an afterthought, "She looked kind of odd..."

Cloud paused and turned back to Aeris. Her face turned beet red and she jumped off the slide. She began to run after the cart.

"Wait!" Cloud yelled. "It's too dangerous. I'll go alone, you go home!"

Aeris didn't pay any heed to Cloud's call. He jumped off the slide and followed her into the maze of trash.


	16. Book 1: Oppressed People

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 16**

**Oppressed People**

At the hub of Midgar was the main pillar, and it touched the eight tips of the Sectors. Wedged against the main pillar in Sector 6 was Wall Market, so named for the Sector walls on either side, the main pillar wall to the northeast, and the maze of trash to the southwest. Cloud was greeted at the entrance to Wall Market with the smell of cooking flesh – some gamey rodents were inside-out nearby.

Metal huts dotted the landscape ahead of him. From each open doorway, neon light flooded onto the dirt lanes. He saw people trolling up and down the long dusty malls, simultaneously wary of pickpockets and scanning for pockets to pick.

The two-toed footprints of the chocobo lead towards a cathouse on the south side. Aeris was retracing her steps back to the entrance, towards Cloud.

"Wall Market is scary in a lot of ways, especially for a girl." Aeris' voice had lost its light-hearted inflection. "So we've got to find Tifa fast."

Cloud's right arm was stiff, awaiting the order to fly for the sword. Aeris' expression was dour, but Cloud still noticed her stepping neatly in the chocobo tracks – her combat boots fit into the grooves made by the giant bird's toes.

The lights of the Honeybee Inn were garish and red. A huge, cartoon-faced, robot bee wagged above the front entrance. A tight-looking man in a mauve suit sucked on a bottle of beer and watched them approach. The nametag simply read, Bouncer.

"Howdy," said the bouncer. He slid his palm over his greased hair. "Here to meet your destiny?"

"I'm looking for a woman named Tifa. She inside?"

The bouncer laughed as he wiped the grease on his palm off on his suit. "Hey, you're pretty fast. Tifa's our newest girl. But, unfortunately, she's having an interview right now. Here at the Honeybee Inn, it's customary for all the new girls to be taken to Don Corneo's mansion. Of course, the Don's looking for a bride, so he might settle down with her, and then you'll never have a chance!"

"Settle down?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah," the manager explained, "the Don's a famous dilettante, but now he wants to settle down. He's screening all our girls, three per night, making himself a short list."

"Thanks," Cloud turned away. Aeris was quick in tow.

It wasn't hard to suss out which was Corneo's mansion – at the distant tip of Wall Market, one giant manor rose above all other structures, in glorious greens, purples, with crestless banners and coloured searchlights. The chocobo tracks continued to wind around various shops and carts. Aeris continued to walk inside of the tracks.

A scruffy looking imp of a man sidled up beside Cloud. "Hey bubby, fifty gil for that prize of a quim."

"Get lost."

"Until the hour whistle blows, bubby. That's all I need. I'll make it seventy-five gil."

Cloud's instincts fired and his hands flew before he knew what was happening. He caught the brigand's hands as they were reaching to snatch his sword. Cloud, now caught up to himself, used the momentum to throw the thug to the ground.

"This isn't a mugger's toy. This is the buster sword. It killed Wutaians in the war, it killed SOLDIERs, and don't think it won't kill you." Cloud felt Aeris' eyes on him, and his hands relaxed. The ruffian scrambled off into the smoky depths of the market.

Aeris watched from within a chocobo track. Cloud walked to her, and held her hand as they continued. They weren't bothered again.

It got strangely quiet in the yard leading up to Corneo's entrance. At the brass double-door, there stood a man who was much thicker than Cloud. He looked at the two with his arms crossed.

"Listen, the Don's not interested in men. So just get the hell outta here." The bouncer said.

Aeris looked past Cloud and noticed a chocobo eating out of a large troth of greens. Seeing this, she took Cloud hand and pulled him away from the door.

"That's the chocobo." She said, grabbing Cloud by the jaw and twisting his head so that he would see the creature. She twisted it back to her face, a little closer than it had been before. "I can get inside; I'll tell Tifa about you."

Cloud pulled his face from Aeris' grip. Once he was free he drew close to her. "No!" he whispered, but his voice was strained. They were not that far away from the door and the bouncer, although he had seemed to stop taking notice in them. "You can't!"

"Why?" Aeris asked.

"You _do_ know what kind of place this is, don't you?"

"Then what am I supposed to do? You want to go in with me?"

"Well being a man, that'll be pretty hard. Besides if I bust in there, it'll cause too much commotion. But, I just can't let you go in alone. First... we need to find out if Tifa's alright... What's so funny Aeris?"

Aeris had been growing a smile on her face so big she could not contain her laughter any longer. "Cloud…" she said, trying earnestly to containing herself. "The only way to get in there is if you are a girl."

"Yes, I know," Cloud said.

Aeris grinned at him, "And since you want to go in…?"

Cloud was not following, "Look, Aeris, I just told you I can't bust in there."

Aeris, tired of waiting for him to understand, finally said, "Why don't you dress up like a girl?"

"_What!?_"

"It's the only way," she chuckled. Cloud checked her eyes for a hint of sarcasm, but they were the same as always, pure, innocent, and always whimsically serious.

"Aeris! I can't," Cloud tried to keep his whispers from jumping out of his throat and resonating across the entire town.

"You are worried about Tifa, aren't you?" Aeris noticed Cloud look away from her for a moment, and she had her answer. She grabbed his arm and began to run away from the door, pulling him along. "Then come on, hurry!"

* * *

Strafford and Co.'s Clothing Shop was located a few blocks away from Corneo's Mansion. Upon entering, Aeris walked immediately up to the woman at the counter. "Excuse me! I'd like to get a dress." Aeris said politely.

The girl at the counter turned and looked at Aeris. She had a name tag that read Delilah. "Umm, it might take a little time. Will that be all right?"

"What's the problem?"

"Well, my father, the owner, has been in a slump lately. You see, he makes all the dresses." The woman said.

It was at this time that Cloud had entered the store. He had been pacing outside nervously but he had heard the conversation between Aeris and the girl at the counter.

"Where is your father?" Aeris asked.

"He's probably plastered at the bar." The girl's professional appearance suddenly relaxed as her eyes floated to the ground in a mix of disdain and great sadness.

"So... You're saying we can't get a dress unless we do something about your father?"

"Yes, I'm sorry. He's caused so much trouble." Her eyes returned to meet Aeris' "You'd help me bring him back?"

"Well, if we don't do something, we don't get a dress, right?"

The girl smiled and Aeris quickly hurried out of the shop. Cloud gave chase. He caught up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She had jumped and turned around quickly, almost reaching for her staff.

When their eyes met, hers became calm very fast and she stood still, looking at him with an innocent smile. She seemed so carefree all the time, like no one he had ever encountered before. She treated everyone as if they were royalty and yet, her speech was so rushed, her movements so quick that it barely seemed as if she was communicating at all. She ran about Wall Market with the giddiness of a young child, picking up articles of women's clothing for Cloud to wear. A tiara here, a brazier there. Everything but a dress.

The joyful storms in her eyes calmed when she looked into Cloud's glowing blue stare. But soon she gave him a large toothy grin and turned away, hopping along towards the tavern.

* * *

The tavern was called the Happy Cow. Inside, it was empty in the early Saturday morning, all except one man, who sat at the bar, hunched over his shot glass. The bartender, whose name was Lyle, didn't seem to mind what time of day it was. There wasn't a clock to be seen in the tavern, and with no natural light shining through the window, the Happy Cow had the slogan "Happy Hour Every Hour." This slogan, however, was only meant to point out that the tavern ran twenty four hours a day, and not to suggest that its liquor was inexpensive.

Aeris trotted up to the lone customer. Cloud entered and stood by the door.

"Excuse me," she asked briskly, "are you the father of the girl at the Clothing Store?"

The drunken man spun his stool around to face Aeris. He squinted and looked at her, trying to recognize her for a moment. He then returned to the bar, and ran his finger along the rim of the shot glass.

"I own the Clothes shop... but I ain't yerr father," he slurred.

Cloud stepped up behind Aeris. "Make me some clothes!" he said firmly to the owner.

"I don't make men's clothes," the owner said, signalling Lyle to get him another shot, "And I don't feel like makin' anything right now."

Lyle poured the next shot and put it in front of the owner, who looked at it ponderously. Lyle the Bartender took the empty shot glass and began to wash it in the sink.

Aeris turned around and put one hand on Cloud's chest. "Cloud, you wait over there for a second. I'll try and talk to him. Why don't you go over there and have something to drink."

Cloud looked where Aeris had been pointing, at the other end of the bar. He looked back at her and backed away from her, her hand sliding down his chest and almost further until it fell to her side. He walked to the barstool and sat down, signalling Lyle.

While Lyle and Cloud were occupied, Aeris leaned in close to the owner's face. "You know, Mr. Strafford… what's your first name?"

"Bruno!" Strafford hiccupped, "I'm Bruno Strafford and I ain't yer father!"

"I know. My friend over there, his name is Cloud. He always said that just once, he'd like to dress up like a girl. So, that's why I wanted a cute dress for him..."

The owners face seemed to light up, he raised his eyebrows and turned his head just enough to get a clear look at Aeris. He had a smirk on his face.

"What? A tough lookin' guy like that?" he asked, leaning and looking at Cloud.

Cloud had ordered The Flaming Tonberry, which was whisky and potion. The taste was horrible; however, it provided such a strong feeling of elation that it had become very popular. It had been named after the fashion it was served. The mix of potion and corn whisky gave it an olive green color. It was usually served in shots, and when placed on the bar, the bartender would light the drink on fire. The flames would come out a brilliant green. It was one of the most expensive drinks heard of.

Lyle placed the shot glass in front of Cloud and lit it with a barbeque lighter. The flames gave a soft windy sound as they lit up, and Cloud slugged it back, not taking a moment to marvel in it's beauty. Aeris and the clothing shops' owner looked at him as he struggled it down his throat and into his chest. He blinked ferociously and nodded to Lyle, smirking.

Aeris turned back to the conversation. "So, how 'bout it? Will you make him one?"

Strafford ran his hand across his jaw, scratching the stubble on his chin. "...might be interesting." He slurred, "I was gettin' a little bored just makin' regular clothes." He looked at Cloud once more, who was choking down another Flaming Tonberry. "Okay," he said. "Yeah, all right. What kind of dress you want?"

"Silk?" Aeris asked, unsure of her sense in fashion.

"Heh," Strafford hiccupped. "You know, I got a friend with the same taste as him."


	17. Book 1: Big Bro

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**Big Bro**

Bruno Strafford had taken a 'sober shot' which was the most expensive beverage in the bar. Sober shots were never advertised however, as the drink itself was highly illegal.

There were doctors in the slums, but most of them only carried potions and knew little about real medical science. Shinra ran the hospitals, where they trained Medics in the same fashion as they trained their elite squad SOLDIER. Medics were dipped into pools of mako, giving them magical properties. They would heal most wounds with curative magic, coming from their almost limitless materia crystals. Before Shinra and the discovery of materia, the old ways still used drugs, needles and intense operations. A highly used drug was known as glyphanide, which worked similar to adrenaline. It was used mostly post-surgery, to wake patients from sedation. The drug was still kept inside the hospitals, and thus was smuggled out on a constant basis to be used in Taverns such as the Happy Cow. The drink was one part glyphanide, one part potion and two parts water. It could be ordered without the water, but only in half-shots. Anything over the small dosage of glyphanide given in a shot could prove harmful and potentially fatal to drinkers.

Strafford left the bar, leaving Cloud Strife drinking back his third Flaming Tonberry.

"We don't want you drunk," Aeris said playfully.

"Would I be willing to do this sober?" Cloud asked, and Aeris took his hand, pulling him off the stool and towards the door. Throwing a pouch of Gil towards Lyle, Cloud nodded as he was being dragged away.

Lyle caught it and called after them, "Give my regards to Hedgehog!"

Aeris quickened her pace, pulling Cloud out of the bar and into the street.

"Hey!" Cloud said, stumbling a bit. "Why did you pull me so hard?"

"I didn't like it in there," Aeris said, but Cloud could tell she was hiding something.

"What did he mean by Hedgehog?" Cloud asked, a headache growing. "Great, what a waste of money –now I've got this headache."

* * *

After following Strafford back to his clothing store, they took Cloud's measurements – a process that Cloud was very reluctant to participate in, but his growing inebriation aided in his compliance. The clothing shop owner, high as a kite on glyphanide, immediately found proper materials and began to make a dress for the mercenary.

"I'm having second thoughts," Cloud admitted, "This is a stupid idea. I'll admit, it was kind of cute when you suggested it before, but this is taking too long. This plan is too elaborate. We need to get Tifa now."

"We're almost done," Aeris said, grabbing him by the wrist again. She pulled him out of the store. Cloud was getting used to the feel of her grip on his wrist, how her fingers found their way between the end of his gloves and the beginning of his armlets. They slipped right through the armour and touched his skin. He followed.

"It'll be ready after lunch!" Strafford called as they left the store.

They had eaten at a restaurant on the east side of Wall Market. Cloud had bought a barbeque plate from a country he had never heard of. It had tasted terrible, but his headache ceased, and he blamed it on hunger. After all, the last time he had eaten had been just after the first bombing mission.

Aeris had raw fish wrapped in rice, and she ate it with her fingers. 'Like a small child,' Cloud thought, 'giving up on learning utensils.'

"Cloud," Aeris said after her food was done. She poked at the last few remaining grains of rice on her plate. "Did you know that bartended back there?"

Cloud laughed, "You ask the strangest questions. No, I've never met him before."

Aeris hummed. "He must have mistaken you for someone else, then."

There was a small headache growing in his head again, 'Oh, hunger.' He reached over and stole a grain of rice off of Aeris' plate. She laughed and tossed the last grain into his hair.

"Hey!" Cloud cried, and reached into the tangled spiky mess. Thumbing his way through his yellow locks, he found the grain of rice (by pure luck) and placed it on her plate. "You lost this," he laughed.

Their server walked by and dropped off the cheque, which Cloud looked and briefly, and threw enough gil on the table for a small tip. They left the restaurant.

* * *

"Oh you're here!" said Delilah Straffod when Aeris and Cloud entered. "It's ready, go try it on."

Cloud was given a silk blue dress and pushed into a change room. The only thing separating him from the rest of the store was a red satin curtain. He hung the dress on the wall and looked at it. It seemed to fit his dimensions, with a stuffed chest and hip padding. He unclipped the sword from his back and leaned it against the wall. He stripped down to naked and stepped into the dress.

"How do you put this on?" he asked through the curtain. Suddenly, the curtain moved a bit and Aeris' head poked through. "Whoa! What are you doing?" Cloud yelled, turning away from her.

Aeris giggled, looking at Cloud's bare buttocks. She found it quite striking. "Put it on," she said.

Cloud fiddled with the dress, trying to pull it up past his waist without letting Aeris see his masculinity. He got it on properly; not really minding Aeris' watchful eye, at least not after his package had been safely hidden. He turned and modelled it for her. She smiled and giggled. Then her face turned serious. "It's still not right." She said. "A wig! That's what you need!"

From behind Aeris, Bruno Strafford spoke. "I thought you might, so I talked to my friend about getting one. You know the gym? You'll find a lot of people there like you. Go and talk to them."

Cloud had finished undressing and had put his true clothes on, clipping the buster sword to his back. "'Like you?' …Aeris, what did you tell him?"

"Does it matter?" She smiled. Cloud hadn't noticed that she had been watching him get out of the dress, and he had given her a full show.

The storeowner gave them directions to the gym. The two navigated through Wall Market until they reached it. This so called 'gym' wasn't much of a gymnasium so much as a boxing arena. There was a large square boxing cage in the center of the large open space, and tables scattered about the floor. In the far corner of the room, in a cloud of tobacco smoke, sat four figures. Cloud motioned to Aeris, opening his palm towards the floor, so that she should stay there as he approached them.

There were three male and one female. They were all smoking tobacco cigarettes and enjoying the tranquility until Cloud walked up to the table and sat down. Upon sitting down he noticed that the woman wasn't a woman at all. Big Bro was the man wearing the green dress and the wig. "Are you the one who wants to be cute?" Big Bro asked in a scruffy voice.

"Cute?" Cloud asked. While he had been slugging back alcohol, he should have been listening to what Aeris had been telling the owner. "What about the wig?"

"It seems we have a bit of a problem." Big Bro said. He swung his left arm towards the man beside him and pointed his thumb (which had a very long painted thumbnail) in his direction. "Derith here has been looking to own the wig I promised you. And he says he wants to fight for it. It seems the only way you are going to get the wig is if you beat Derith." Cloud sighed and looked at the table.

* * *

Aeris didn't want to watch the fight, so she stood outside and waited. No one dared approach her, for she was outside Big Bro's domain, and anyone around there was Bro's private property.

Inside, Cloud and Derith had been locked inside the cage. Cloud's sword and armour had been left outside of the cage for the match. As soon as he entered the cage, Cloud began to wonder why he had agreed to this. He wasn't much of a fist fighter; in fact he had never boxed in his life. He had been trained in the ancient art of swordsmanship, not the brawl. Derith seemed pumped to fight, as he bounced around the ring, his fists to his face.

Cloud stood, arms at his side, waiting for Derith to strike. Derith bounced up to Cloud and swung at his face. Cloud brought his arms up in reflex, if they had been holding Cloud's sword, Derith would no longer have any arms; however, they were not, so his wrists hit Derith's arms weakly. There was no time to process his mistake before he had been struck in the face. Then again, then again. Three hits and he stumbled backwards, each punch heightening the effect of the alcohol inside him. He was dizzy.

Quicker than a flash and Derith was upon him again! The boxer delivered two blows to Cloud's stomach, but when he went for the next uppercut, Cloud blocked it and kicked Derith in the stomach. His kick sent Derith careening backward to the other end of the cage. Somewhat surprised by the speed of his kick, Cloud leaned himself back against the cage around the boxing ring.

He felt stronger now, and when Derith ran at him, he was ready. Derith was bringing his fist around but Cloud was quicker, stepping out of the way as his opponent punched the cage. Before the rattling sound settled, and before Derith could retract his arm, two hands gripped it tightly. Cloud threw Derith across the ring.

Cloud felt hot, and he felt the first bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. He wiped it with his wrist as Derith picked himself up off the ground.

"Don't… get cocky!" Derith shouted.

From the ground, Derith's leg shot up towards Cloud's face. Cloud barely had time to recognize what was happening before he tasted the boot and felt the horrible churning in his stomach that told him his feet were no longer on the ground.

The back of his head his the floor of the boxing ring, and only then did it register that it was made of wood. The impact cracked the floorboards and Cloud could feel splinters entering the back of his head. He rolled out of the way as Derith's foot came down for a finishing blow. The boot broke right through the floorboards, and in that moment, Cloud was on his feet again.

In the few moments that followed, Cloud realized two things. The first was the fact that he could pack a really powerful punch. Derith's face made a cracking noise as Cloud's fist knocked his jaw out of place. The boxer fell backwards with such force that his foot, previously lodged inside of the floorboards, flew out and up over his head, sending splinters flying up in all directions.

The second thing Cloud noticed, was that Big Bro was not necessarily rooting for his friend Derith. The moment that the boxer collapsed on the ground, his legs akimbo and landing moments after his head, was the moment that Big Bro first began to cheer.

Derith crawled away from Cloud quickly.

"He's still conscious!" Big Bro hooted, "Continue!"

The fight continued for twenty minutes. Derith had many more hits than Cloud, but each of Cloud's would knock Derith to the ground. Sweat beads were knocked off of eachother's faces and Cloud could hear Derith's jaw crack at one point. Their bodies were quickly bruising. It was after twenty minutes that Cloud finally knocked Derith out, giving him several blows to the face until he passed out. The crowd of three cheered, it made no difference who had won, for they had seen a good fight.

Derith was awoken with a Sober Shot and Cloud, drenched in sweat, received the blonde wig from Big Bro. Cloud thanked him, equipped himself and met Aeris outside.

* * *

In the change room, Cloud watched the curtain attentively. Since Aeris' peep show earlier, he did not want to take chances with such a flimsy divider between him and a store full of people._ 'But,'_ he admitted to himself_, 'it wasn't that bad having Aeris see me, if she was interested.'_ He put the dress on and flopped the wig on_. 'This is the most ridiculous thing I think I have ever done,'_ he thought, swinging open the red curtain and walking out

"Hmm, not bad." Strafford hummed, putting his hands on his hips and surveying Cloud. "This may be a new business for me."

"Yeah, you're right." Delilah agreed, "Should we try it?"

Turning to Cloud, the daughter at the counter said, "Thanks for showing us something new. My father's got his motivation back now. So the dress is on the house."

Cloud walked back into the change room and grabbed his equipment. He walked back out but Aeris had her arms crossed and was looking at him.

"Walk more nicely," she said to him.

"Nicely?" he asked.

"Yes, like this!" Aeris suddenly began walking towards Cloud, but in a way he had never seen her before. Her hips were swinging, her arms moving up and down her waist as she walked, her head was down but she looked up at him, her long bangs hanging down casting shadows on her neck and chest. And then, just as quickly as she had changed, she changed back.

"Now you try?"

Cloud attempted, but he felt awkward and stupid doing it. Aeris giggled. "You're so cute, Ms. Cloud."


	18. Book 1: Don of the Slums

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

**Don of the Slums**

"Two Ladies, coming through!"

Cloud and Aeris entered the mansion. The carpet was bright pink, the walls purple. They were in the main hall. To the right there was a large staircase leading to an open hallway that ran across the back of the main hall. There were three doors along the upstairs hall.

Below the stairs there was an assortment of curtains and decorations. There was a desk where a man examined to two newcomers. He stood and walked up to Cloud, and Cloud could feel a bead of sweat growing on his forehead.

"Hey, ladies," said the man, causing great relief in the cross-dressing Cloud, "I'll go and let the Don know you're here. Wait here." The man walked up the staircase and along the far wall. "Don't go wandering around..." he muttered as he entered the second door.

"Now's our chance," Aeris whispered, "Let's find Tifa. "

Cloud nodded and they headed to the staircase. They passed the first door, and quietly snuck by the door where the man had entered. The third door had been left ajar, and inside there was a stone staircase leading downward.

They creaked open the door and walked down the stairs, which were lit by torches along the walls. Cloud was still wearing his boots, and they made a large clumping sound as they descended. He partly wished that he had spent some more time becoming more prepared in Wall Market. After all, Big Bro seemed pretty convincing. He shrugged the idea off, knowing that if bad came to worse, he still had his sword clipped underneath his dress, and his gear in a large backpack which he was wearing. He had bought the pack from the clothing shop before coming.

When they got to the bottom of the stone staircase, they were in a dungeon of some sort. In the center of the room, there was a table with straps on it, obviously to be used as some sexual torture device. Beside the table stood Tifa. Upon seeing her, Cloud realized what he was wearing. He backed up where she could not see him, but Aeris ran right up to her.

"Tifa?" Aeris asked. Tifa looked up at her, "Nice to meet you. Cloud's told me a lot about you."

Tifa looked at Aeris almost with surprise, "And you are?" she asked, with something that Cloud perceived as contempt, but perhaps that was only wishful thinking.

"Hey!" Tifa realized, "You're the one with Cloud in the park!"

Aeris nodded, "Yes, with Cloud." She could see that Tifa's expression began to fade. Perhaps Cloud and Tifa were more than friends, after all. "Don't worry. We just met. It's nothing. My name is Aeris Gainsborough," she said quickly, smiling.

"What do you mean, 'Don't worry'... about what? No, don't misunderstand. Cloud and I grew up together. Nothing more."

Aeris began to giggle again, remembering Cloud who had hidden himself, "Poor Cloud having to stand here and listen to both of us call him nothing."

"Cloud?" Tifa asked as a woman in a blue dress came to the bottom of the staircase. She had long blonde hair, and was sulking, as if embarrassed. _'Wait a minute,' _she thought, _'I recognize that face.'_

"Cloud!" Tifa ran up to Cloud and examined his eyes. It was him all right. "Why are you dressed like that? And what are you doing here? Forget that, what happened to you after the fall? Are you hurt?"

"Hey, give me a chance to answer," Cloud said. "I'm dressed like this… because there was no other way to get in here." Cloud thought of his fall, "I'm all right. Aeris helped me out."

"Oh," Tifa turned to Aeris, who stood awkwardly by the table.

"Tifa, explain. What are you doing in a place like this?" Cloud asked.

Tifa didn't take her stare off of Aeris. The flower girl seemed to get the message the stare was saying.

"Oh!" Aeris exclaimed. "Ahem! I'll just plug my ears."

Aeris turned and ran to the farthest corner of the room. She plugged her ears and began to hum quietly to herself. Tifa turned to Cloud and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay," she said softly.

"Thanks," He smiled a bit, but his face grew to concern quickly. "What happened?"

"When we got back from the Number 5 reactor, there was this weird man hanging around the bar. So Barret caught him and squeezed some information out of him."

"That's when the Don's name popped up," Cloud assumed.

"Right, Don Corneo. Barret told me to leave the lech alone... But something's been bothering me."

"I see," Cloud put a fist up to his chin and leaned against the stone wall. "So you wanted to get the story straight from Corneo's mouth."

"So I made it here, but now I'm in a bind. Corneo is looking for a bride. Everyday, he gets three girls, chooses one of them, and then…" Tifa trailed off as she thought about what Corneo did to his wives. They always ended up at the Honeybee Manor. "Anyway, I have to be the girl ...or I'm out for tonight."

"Sorry, but I overheard..." Tifa and Cloud spun around to see Aeris, who had stopped humming and was standing with them. Tifa seemed a little aggravated, but Aeris piped in, "If you know the three girls, there's no problem, right?"

Cloud threw down his arms and stood up quickly. "No, Aeris! I can't have you get involved."

"Oh?" Aeris retorted coyly, "So it's all right for Tifa to be in danger?"

Cloud's eyes went wide. "No! I don't want Tifa in—"

Tifa cut Cloud off and looked at Aeris. "Is it all right?"

Aeris looked at her feet and kicked the thin layer of dust on the dungeon floor, "I grew up in the slums," she said, thinking back on her youth, "I'm used to danger. Do you trust me?"

"Yes, thank you, Ms. Gainsborough." Tifa said politely.

"Call me Aeris," she looked up and smiled.

"He-eeeyyy!" descended a voice from the top of the stairs. The three ladies looked up. "It's time, ladies. The Don is waiting! I told you not to wander around. Hurry up!" the man turned and left the doorway, mumbling to himself, "I tell ya, women nowadays..."

They were left at the bottom. Aeris walked towards the staircase. Cloud looked at the other two women. "I probably don't need to ask, but the other girl is me, right?"

"You're right," Tifa said. "There was no need to ask."

They headed up the stairs. As they walked, Tifa said, "You know, Cloud. I think this is the most ridiculous thing you've_ ever_ done."

"I was just thinking that."

The man had returned to his desk; however, the door in the centre of the room was still open. At the doorway stood Kotch, he held his arm up and extending into the room. "All right ladies," Kotch said. "Line up in front of the Don."

They entered the room. The walls were green, and they stood on a large green rug. On the rug was a picture of two golden snakes twirling around each other. Their heads were crushed by the Don's desk. Don Corneo sat at his desk, with his feet propped up on it. He was wearing slippers and a mauve housecoat. His head was shaved; all save for a blond Mohawk that was full of hair grease. On the left side of his head, he had a tattoo of a heart with an arrow through it.

Aeris and Tifa walked to opposite ends of Cloud. Kotch closed the door and walked behind the ladies. Cloud was afraid for a moment, for he had carefully hidden his large sword in his dress, and it bulged out slightly. Surely, Corneo's Number One Lackey would notice.

But Kotch walked right up to the Don, not noticing.

"These are the ladies," Kotch said.

Don Corneo took his feet off the desk and stood up, leaning over his desk. The Don was short and fat and he squinted at them, His features were crooked, and when he squinted, his bulging nose rode up his face.

"Hmmm," Corneo whined, scanning the room, "Good. Splendid!"

The don walked out from behind his desk, moving towards Aeris. "Now, let's see…" he said, "Which girl should I choose?"

Aeris was standing plainly, her pink dress and red cropped jacket. She too, had her weapon concealed, as per usual. The Don looked her over, but moved on to Cloud. He almost walked right past Cloud and onto Tifa.

He looked at Tifa for a long time. Tifa looked right back at Don, the way she would look at her customers to get a bigger tip. The don smiled, his lazy eye shifting slightly away from her. Then he turned his head and looked at Cloud. He walked over and stood on his toes, examining Cloud's face. The don reeked of old sex, as if he hadn't taken a shower in his life. Cloud looked away, and when the Don walked around to get a better look, Cloud looked again the other way. The smell of the Don's breath, his lazy eye and his complete lack in fashion made it repulsive to even consider pretending to be interested.

The Don turned to Kotch and took a few steps towards his desk. "I've made up my mind," the Don said. "My choice for tonight is…"

The Don turned to Tifa and ran towards her. "This little beauty!"

Tifa giggled and curtseyed. The Don grabbed her by the hand and began walking to the doorway at the back of the room. "You two can have the other ones," he said to Kotch and the other man, Scotch, who began to walk towards Aeris and Cloud.

* * *

Aeris had been dragged downstairs by Corneo's second lackey Scotch. Cloud had walked with Kotch into the last door. Inside, there were ten men waiting for them. Around the room there was a bright purple couch, the purpose of which Cloud didn't want to think about. At the far end of the room there was a window, but the men stood between Cloud and the window.

"Here's the prettiest reject," Kotch said. "Go for it."

The men began to advance towards Cloud. He backed up, but bumped into Kotch. "Going somewhere?" Kotch asked with a laugh. Cloud turned and ran right towards the men, knocking them out of the way until he was through the small mob. He was on the other side, by the window.

The men were recovering and began to move towards him again, but Cloud was reaching for his sword. He grabbed the handle and ripped the sword through his dress, sending its pieces falling to the floor. And there he stood, completely naked except for his boots and his large sword. At this point, the ten men noticed that he was no female, but Kotch, who still stood by the door, could not see past them.

"What!" one of the man shouted. "Get him!"

They ran towards him, but with three long swings, all of the advancing men had large gashes on them. The room was splattered with blood, and the men were on the ground. Kotch had seen a sudden spill of blood and ran towards Cloud from the door.

"What?" Kotch asked in bewilderment. Cloud ran up to Kotch, holding the large blade right up to his neck.

"You are going to stay here," Cloud said. He led Kotch to the couch and forced him to sit down. Leaning over, he opened his pack, which he had cut loose with his dress. He put on his regular clothing items and his armour. Kotch sat uneasily still while Cloud clipped on his armour and strapped everything in place. He took a moment to sigh in comfort. Hopefully he would never have to wear a dress again. Cloud clipped the sword onto his back and nodded to Kotch. He ran out of the room and closed the door behind him. Finding a decorative golden rod, Cloud stuck it into the door handle, to prevent Kotch from warning the others. He then ran towards the staircase.

Down the stairs he ran to find Aeris being strapped to the table. Scotch was tying her in, but Cloud leapt towards him and unsheathed his sword, quickly slicing the man in two. The man's two pieces fell to the floor, his smile fading as the stone floor of the dungeon was splattered in blood.

"Aeris are you all right?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, let's go get Tifa," Aeris said hurriedly. Cloud untied her and she sat up, rubbing her wrists. They were red from being tied in. Cloud helped her off the table and they ran up the staircase and into the Don's Chambers. The first room was empty, so they hurried through, running over the snake rug and past the desk, into the other doorway.

Busting into the room, they found Don Corneo, wearing only a pair of Boxer Briefs, standing on the bed. Standing beside the bed was Tifa, in her green dress but with her bladed knuckles bared.

"What is this?" Corneo asked frantically, "what the hell's going on?"

"Shut up!" Tifa yelled at him, "we're asking the questions now... What did your assistants find out? Talk!"

Corneo hesitated too long. Cloud grew impatient and put his right foot on the bed, holding his sword. "I'll chop them off," he said to Don Corneo.

"No! Not that!" Corneo fell to his knees and started to walk on them towards Cloud, his hands folded in prayer, "I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

"So... talk," Tifa said.

"I made 'em find out where the man with the gun-arm was. But that's what I was ordered to do."

"By who?" Tifa asked.

"No—! If I told you that, I'd be killed!"

"You know, I could rip them off," Aeris said, leaning into the Don closely.

Corneo began to weep, "It was Heidegger of Shinra! Heidegger, the head of Public Safety Maintenance!"

"Did you say the Shinra? What are they up to?" Tifa got no response. After a moment, she clenched her fists and punched the bed, "Talk or smash them!"

"You're serious, aren't you..." Corneo looked at the three interrogators, they unchanging expressions, "...ohboy, ohboy, ohboy." He said, shaking his head, "I'm not fooling around here either, you know. Shinra's trying to crush a small rebel group called AVALANCHE, and want to infiltrate their hideout. And they're really going to crush them... literally, by breaking the support holding up the plate above them."

"Break the support?" Tifa said, holding her hands to her mouth and backing up from the bed.

"You know what's going to happen?" Corneo said, "The plate'll go PING and everything's gonna go BAMMM! I heard their hideout's in the Sector 7 Slums... I'm just glad it's not here in Sector 6."

"They're going to wipe out the Sector 7 Slums? Cloud, will you come with me to Sector 7?"

"Of course, Tifa." Cloud nodded, taking his foot off the bed and putting the sword away.

They ran past the foot of the bed and towards the door.

"Just a second!" Corneo shouted.

"Shut up!" Cloud turned and spat.

"No wait, it'll only take a second," Corneo pleaded. Aeris and Tifa walked back to where Cloud was standing. Corneo backed up to the wall and said calmly, "How do you think scum like me feels when they babble on about the truth?"

Cloud answered whimsically, "They've given up on life?"

Corneo smiled, his lazy eye rolling to the back of his head. "Close," he said, "but no cigar." Suddenly Corneo reached for a rope that hung by his bed. He pulled it and the floor beneath Cloud, Tifa and Aeris gave way. They fell through the floor and down a long tunnel. Cloud hit his head during the fall and blacked out.


	19. Book 1: The Long Walk

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 19**

**The Long Walk**

The top floor of the Shinra Headquarters was a single room, and Heidegger found it to be the most annoying room ever conceived. Already panting from his journey up the grand staircase that led from the sixty-ninth to the seventieth floor, he inwardly groaned at the sight of President Cathal Shinra's desk, at the complete opposite end of the building.

Between the desk and Heidegger was nothing at all. White oval columns, made of ivory from eledunks lined the room, one per metre. They were purely for show and had no support function, but Shinra had somehow worked out of the logic of bringing a species of pachyderm to the brink of extinction, just for impressive office furniture.

He began his march.

Heidegger had certainly let himself go since the war, and his girth had grown emphatically. Now, as the head of Shinra's Peace Preservation department, he did not need to keep fit in order to survive. He just needed to watch his back. Because there might be another person out there like him. Someone, who would literally kill for his position…

'_My stars!'_ Heidegger thought_, 'this is taking a bloody long time.'_

President Shinra's desk was still very far away. He was sitting at it, nestled in the round metal C-Shaped table, hunched over large, poster-sized papers. Behind his leather chair stood another man, this one wearing a black suit.

Upon seeing him, Heidegger almost stopped walking. He continued, but found he was no longer in a rush to get across the office. Hopefully, by the time he got there, Reeve would be finished his business and wouldn't have to be dealt with.

Reeve Tuesti was the head of the Urban Development program, and he had helped with both the construction and the maintenance of Midgar. Because of this, Heidegger found him pig-headed and self-righteous. How he despised Reeve's slicked back hair, his short goatee and the look of concern that seemed to be permanently pasted on his face. Reeve was always foaming at the bit to prattle on about his next project. Heidegger hated that. Didn't Reeve have his own choir to preach to? Why should the board have to hear about population control, roads and mako costs – again and again?

If Reeve had only been an insufferable whiner, Heidegger might find it in his big heart to tolerate him. But it was the holier-than-thou attitude that really chapped his ass. Reeve was much older than he looked (suspiciously so). He lorded his seniority over the rest of the board, especially when he disagreed with the other department heads. He berated Heidegger's peace policies, claiming they weren't peaceful at all, even war-mongering.

Heidegger knew that this was not the case. Without order, there would be no peace. And in order to maintain peace, one must violently maintain order. His own peace policies, Heidegger found, were much more effective than his predecessor, who attempted to negotiate peace treaties with Wutai, a country that was clearly going to lose the war. He had been weak, and Heidegger felt that he fitted the position much better.

His walk continued as he thought about his rise to power. He had been a general in the war, and had led many troops into battle. He still wore his medals pinned to his green polyester suit, which itself was the uniform of a Shinra General. He wore his uniform every day to the Shinra office, and did not plan to change his clothes until the day he died. After the war, he was assigned as leader of the Turks, who specialized in kidnapping, murdering, etcetera. And that's precisely what he ordered them to do after a few years. His predecessor took a nasty spill off the unfinished intercity highway, and Heidegger was promoted to head of Shinra's Peace Preservation Department, where he worked for four years. In that time, he had grown an impressive full-faced brown beard to hide the horrible battle scars on his mouth and throat. His voice box had been damaged, causing his voice to have a gruff undertone, and it made his laugh a horrible, throaty noise. His other scar was over his right eye. He had worn an eye patch for several years, but preferred to have the horrible scarred-shut eye terrify those who did not like him. He had survived these scars, and was now more powerful than ever as Shinra's right hand man. He was more powerful than vice president Rufus, who was Shinra's only son.

'_This walk, though,'_ he thought grimly, _'this is going to be the end of me.'_

Approaching Shinra's desk at last, the President looked up briefly at his approaching right hand man, but looked back at the papers.

"How are the preparations coming?" Shinra asked through his cigar.

"Smoothly," Heidegger said, laughing hoarsely, "very smoothly. Gya ha ha! I've assigned the Turks to this. It shouldn't take more than a few hours."

"Mr. President," Reeve said, "are you sure this is a great idea? Destroying two entire cities, just to get rid of a few rebels—"

"Two cities?" Heidegger asked in his thick accent, "You call the dwelling beneath Sector 7 a city? Gya ha ha. Open your eyes, Reeve. Those aren't people, they're insects. All they need is an excuse to die."

"Well, Mr. President, if you follow that logic, soon enough there will be no one left in Midgar but Heidegger. Some of our best workers live in that slum, and we're going to kill them just to crush a piss-ant resistance faction? ...Cathal, please. If you're assigning the Turks to this, they can easily take care of AVALANCHE without crushing the plate."

"You should really flush your personal problems in the morning Reeve," Heidegger snapped, "with the rest of your crap. This is no place for sentiments about slumlings, they'll be dead within the hour!"

"Reeve," Shinra said softly, "our plan is not simply to destroy AVALANCHE. In the slums, more people are becoming influenced by their cause. The slumlings are weak-minded, and the spirit of AVALANCHE presents more of a threat than damaged reactors. If we simply destroy AVALANCHE, there will be more and more resistance until we have all the lower cities against us. With one deft swoop we're going to eliminate AVALANCHE, and cut off the secondary train route. The station in Sector 3 will be the only way up or down from the plate, and trust me, it will be heavily guarded."

"The mayor is against this anyway," Reeve said.

"_MAYOR_!" Heidegger shouted, "Gyaa haa haa! Mayor, you say! All Domino does is sit in his office and feed his face. He's a librarian for chrissakes, not a mayor. I've had enough of your desperate attempts to save the slumlings, Reeve. Let me ask you a question. When you designed this floating city, did you intend for barnacles to cling to its underbelly?"

"No one could have deliberately created the slums, they're an unfortunate reality."

"And have you not, time and again, provided jobs for them, and affordable plate living, only to be refused? They _like_ being scum, they feed off it. You don't cry when you salt a leech."

"And what about all the people on the plate? If Sector 7 falls, that's an entire residential zone destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of lives..."

"Exactly," Shinra said, "which is why you will be in charge of the plate evacuation procedures. Only the three of us, Mayor Domino, and the Turks know of this operation, so listen carefully to this briefing. Reeve, the plate falls at 1900."

"That's mere hours from now."

Heidegger laughed. "The Turks do good work."

"Heidegger, there are only three Turks, and AVALANCHE has enlisted a renegade SOLDIER. I'm sending a small squad of special combatants to aid them. I trust the Turks will know what to do with them when the operation is complete."

Heidegger shrugged. "The Turks do what the Turks do. You asked me to let the dogs loose from their cage, that's what I did."

Shinra raised his eyebrows. "Thank you for your report, Heidegger. That will be all."

Nodding to Shinra, Heidegger began the long walk back to the staircase, chuckling to himself.

"Reeve, you seem tired," Shinra said, putting out his cigar in the ashtray, "Perhaps you should take a vacation."

"I'm fine sir. Besides, I have to make a damage estimate for Sector 7, before and after."

Shinra sighed and stood up.

"If I may say, sir. If you do this, you won't destroy rebellion, you'll make it stronger. The people of the slums won't sit idly by and let themselves be killed by you."

"Which is why we're not going to do it."

For a brief moment, Reeve felt a wave of relief wash over him. The brief moment passed, as Shinra said, "AVALANCHE will be blamed, and their followers will turn to us. The protective care of Shinra Inc. will aid the survivors. It's a shame there won't be any."

Reeve shuddered, "This… just isn't right."

Shinra placed his hand of Reeve's shoulder, "to get your mind off things," he said, "I have a new assignment for you. I've been receiving reports of the owner of the western casino, possibly sympathizing with anti-Shinra organizations. I need you to find out if this is true."

"Sir, as I said, I can't leave, for the last twenty years I have personally overseen any changes in Midgar's urban status, and in all this time, this is the biggest change ever to happen."

"There is a way," Shinra said, "that you can keep an eye on the casino without even leaving these headquarters. Come, my old friend. We have much to talk about."


	20. Book 1: Underneath the Rotting Pizza

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 20**

**Underneath the Rotting Pizza**

Cloud's eye stung. Sewer water had seeped through his eyelid. He lifted his head and shook it. Green tendrils of slime dripped from his face. He was lying on a blackbrick trench, and a centimetre of oily water flowed gently by him.

The sewers, he guessed, underneath Wall Market. He had once seen a map of the plate's sewer system, which was enormous, clean, and maze-like. The tunnel he sat in was crude, and hastily built, like everything in the slums.

Aeris was helping Tifa up. Tifa's lovely blue dress had been torn and there was a hole at her waist. Aeris seemed unharmed, but Cloud still approached her and asked, "are you alright?"

"Yeah," Aeris said, "Well, the worst is over..."

Cloud heard the creature in the darkness before anyone else. "There's something down here." His eyes hadn't adjusted enough to see more than a few metres ahead. He could hear the clinking of chains, and the loud thudding of huge feet.

"Should we run?" Aeris asked.

Cloud put a finger to his mouth, and they all went silent. Cloud thought he could see something moving ahead.

Aeris and Tifa stood together. Aeris slowly drew her quarterstaff from its invisible sheath behind her. Tifa closed her eyes and began to meditate. Cloud glanced back, saw them preparing, and shrugged Tifa's actions off as some sort of martial arts ritual.

Ahead of him, a huge, pig-like head emerged from the darkness. Around its neck was an iron collar with a huge chain that was attached somewhere behind it.

It had black beady eyes that looked at him. It growled and drool dripped from its sharp teeth.

Cloud drew his sword, but he felt surreal. It felt like he was being pulled backwards – that the world was stretching out before him. He spun his head quickly to look at Tifa.

The thin layer of water around Tifa's feet moved outward, leaving her standing in a circle of dry blackbrick.

She opened her eyes and Cloud's head whipped around, following her gaze towards the creature. Bright flames materialized around its head. The beast squealed in pain.

Fully illuminated, Cloud could see the whole beast. It was a rotten green-coloured monster, on two short legs. Its monstrous arms were also bound and chained, but the chains slithered loosely on the ground. It was twice as big as them, at least. On the iron collar, Cloud read the nametag of Corneo's beast: Apps.

The flames went out. Cloud didn't know how Tifa had done it. She ran past him, and a green materia stone on her belt lost its glowing light. Tifa leapt at Apps, and Cloud ran after her. Aeris held back, watching.

The buster sword arced through the dark sewer air and connected with the flesh of the creature's shoulder. Apps roared in pain. It recoiled into the darkness, and Cloud and Tifa backed away from it.

"Magic?" he asked.

"There's no fucking time!" Tifa shouted, and ran around the sewer corner.

Cloud and Aeris followed quickly, but Apps was enraged. Just as they turned the corner, he charged, barely missing them with his claws and smashing into the sewer wall.

They bolted down a short corridor. At the end, Tifa grabbed onto a ladder leading up. She was already halfway up the ladder, and when Cloud and Aeris arrived at the same time, Cloud grabbed Aeris by the waist and lifted her onto the ladder.

Apps had regained his footing and shook the dust and grime off. He charged towards the ladder. Cloud climbed as fast as he could, but Apps was coming on too fast.

Just before Apps could collide with Cloud, the chain around his neck ended. Apps' head snapped back and even as his legs came out from under him, he still reached for Cloud with his massive clawed hands.

Cloud bolted up the ladder. At the top, Tifa was pushing up a manhole cover. Cloud dared not look up both their skirts at the same time.

Beneath him, the creature righted itself, pushing itself ahead with incredible force. Far behind them, the walls that anchored the chains crumbled loudly. Apps reached a claw up the manhole and grabbed at them.

An enormous claw punctured Cloud's ankle and ripped him off of the ladder. He tumbled back towards the sewers.

But Cloud was ready for the beast this time. Landing ungracefully (every movement in his ankle was a universe of pain), he hopped up the long arm of Apps. He felt a magic healing wave, and knew that Aeris was taking care of him.

He raised the sword high, and brought it down into Apps' pig-like head.

Apps roared with such ferocity that the walls of the sewer shook. In the distance, Cloud heard the sounds of rushing water. _'The sewer wall!'_ he remembered.

From around the corner, a floor-to-ceiling torrent of sewer water slammed chains and broken bits of wall into Apps. Cloud grabbed a hold of the ladder and hung for dear life.

The surge of water engulfed him, crashing his head into the rungs of the ladder. An underwater chain whipped at his legs. The wound in his ankle stung.

When the rushing current subsided, Cloud climbed from the flood. He looked at the filthy water below him.

Corneo's beast bobbed face-down in the water – burned, stabbed and finally drowned of his own accord.

Cloud looked up to find the girls were no longer in the sewers anymore.

Climbing out, he found they were in the Train Graveyard in Sector 7. The enormous bulbs of the slums artificial light shone on them once more.

"Cloud, you're still not one-hundred-percent," Aeris said, and used the healing materia she had stolen from him, The leftover wound in his ankle closed itself.

"Thanks," said Cloud, "You can keep that materia. You seem to be a natural at using it."

"The plate's still above us," Tifa looked up, "but this whole sector is in jeopardy. We can talk later."

Another ladder led to the top of a train car, and Tifa went first, followed by Cloud and then Aeris.

The trains were old models long outgrown. Most were steam-based, the same as the cargo trains were now. Old passenger trains with large rusted holes in them had a few bodies of the homeless, some slumped over each other as if they were still squabbling over the rotting loaf of bread that lay a few metres away.

"Tifa, how do you know how to use magic?" Cloud asked. Tifa gave no reply, she used her energy instead to jump from the top of the train car to another that was propped up in a steep incline. Using her spiked boot to stab into the weak steel roof, she climbed to the top of the mountain of trains and peered over her city.

"Yes! We made it! The pillar is still standing!" Tifa exclaimed, but Cloud was examining it more closely.

The long winding staircase that led up to the pillar's control panel was intact, but every few seconds there was light in strobes at several points on the staircase.

"Is that… gunfire?" Aeris asked, but Tifa was already jumping off the side of the train car and sliding down the dirt mound towards the pillar.

* * *

The doorman of the train stood patiently on the platform, and there was a full train ready to leave for the upper plate.

"Hey!" Tifa shouted, "Listen to me!"

The doorman recognized Tifa, as she rode the train often. He smiled when he saw her, but her look of concern furrowed his brow.

"What's the trouble, miss?" asked the doorman.

"Shinra's trying to take down the pillar!" Tifa shouted, "You have to get out of here, now."

"Shinra's taking down the pillar?" the doorman asked, "Is that safe?

"No! If we're under the plate when it happens, we're all going to die! Get everyone off the train and leave immediately!"

Aeris and Cloud ran inside the passenger cars and explained the situation to the passengers, who ran out of the train and towards the gates, which led to the Sector 6 playground.

Cloud ran out of the last car. "It's all clear," he announced, "We have to get to the pillar."

Tifa turned to the doorman. "You have to leave this sector."

The doorman was silent for a while, lost in thought. After a moment, he looked up at Tifa. "No," he calmly said.

"What?" Tifa asked, bewildered.

The doorman looked around the station, "I've worked here all my life. This is all I have. I have seen great despair, great happiness, I have lived through the lives of others. Every inch of this station holds a dear memory to me, lovers' reunions, tearful goodbyes… it's all here. Everything I've learned about myself, about humanity itself, I learned here. Outside of this station, I have nothing. There is nowhere on this planet I would rather die."

Tifa looked at the doorman, and thought of her bar. If the pillar came down, her bar would be destroyed. The more she thought about it, the more fitting it seemed that would die among the tables, and the ceiling fans, and her poorly brewed potions. Everything she had worked for since arriving in Midgar with less than nothing. She would be back to that.

Cloud was staring at the lamppost, where two bodies lay together. One was a bedraggled young man – whose hat was still partially on his head. The woman beside him was his age. They were holding hands and clutched in the other hands were two daggers which they had thrust into their chests. The double-suicide had been recent – a few minutes or so. It was a common sight in the slums, but Tifa saw something flicker in Cloud's eyes. It only flitted across the glowing blue orbs before they resumed with even more ennui than before. He shook his head at the doorman. "Suit yourself." The mercenary ran towards the pillar base as the doorman shouted the last all-aboard.

Tifa ran after Cloud.

There was a crowd gathered around the base of the pillar, watching AVALANCHE's attempts to defend the city. At this moment, it was clear to Tifa that their message was finally out there. AVALANCHE was seen as a band of heroes now, despite what they had done, despite the riots above, the many innocents killed. The people had faith in them. If they should die today, it would not all be in vain. There were more heroes in the slums. For now, they spoke only in ellipses but Shinra could not keep them quiet forever.

Looking up, Cloud noticed that most of the gunfire was at the top of the pillar, which held the self-destruct controls. From forty metres below, he could see Wedge, a small speck, but Wedge nonetheless. He watched him get shot several times and topple over the rail, falling downwards towards them.

After his long tumble, Wedge landed and spat out blood. His skin-coloured shirt was ripped and bloody, and his good-hearted smile was fading.

"Cloud?" Wedge asked. His eyes looked like his entire life was flashing before them – they darted back and forth with such speed only Cloud's mako eyes could catch all the movements.

"Yes," Cloud replied assuringly.

"I knew you would come," he coughed. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it."

Wedge closed his eyes and the smile returned to his face. The last moment of his life held two thoughts for him. The first was of the stars, in a moment, he thought, he would be joining the stars in the heavens, to become an everlasting glow. He hadn't seen a star in nearly a year since his arrival in Midgar, and the smile returned to his face when he thought of joining them after being apart so long. His second thought, which was the very last thought he ever had, was as simple as he was.

'_Cloud is here, we're going to be all right.'_

Cloud turned to Tifa and nodded.

"Aeris," Tifa said, "can you do me a favour?"

"Yes, anything."

"There is a bar in this neighbourhood called Seventh Heaven. There is a little girl named Marlene there."

"Don't worry," Aeris said, "I'll take her somewhere safe."

Aeris ran off looking for Tifa's bar, and Tifa turned to the crowd. "Everyone!" she shouted, "listen to me. The pillar might collapse at any moment, so quickly get to another sector! Get out of Sector 7!"


	21. Book 1: Pillar Assault

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 21**

**Pillar Assault**

Biggs lay, sprawled out, on the staircase with a bullet in his chest. When Cloud ran to him, he coughed, "Cloud… so you still… don't care what… happens to the Planet?"

His voice was strained, and he had to take several breaks in what he was saying, but Cloud could tell he was being strong. If he had a phoenix down, he could be saved.

"You're wounded," Cloud replied.

"Don't worry… about me. Get to the top… of the pillar. Help them."

Cloud moved up the staircase with Tifa in close pursuit. Moving up they ran as fast as their legs could carry them, leaping over steps at a time.

Cloud heard a small whirring sound behind him, but he did not pay attention to it until Tifa cried out. He turned around and saw that a Shinra special combatant was attacking her.

The combatant had a large backpack, from which extended a propeller that kept him suspended in the air, leaving his hands free to wield a dual bladed sword, which he had cut Tifa's arm with. She was bleeding badly, but spun quickly and delivered the combatant a swift kick in the face. He leaned back, and his propeller carried him away from the stairs to let them continue.

"What was that?" Tifa asked.

"Special combatants," Cloud explained quickly, "they use melee weapons, but aren't mako-infused. So, you know, not very effective."

Tifa clutched at her arm. "Effective enough."

Soon, the combatant returned, floating near them with blade in hand. Cloud unsheathed his sword and threw it at the propeller.

As the sword hit the propeller, it both dented one of its blades, and sent itself hurtling back to stab right into the pillar wall. Cloud grabbed his sword and pulled it out of the stone, sheathing it.

The combatant, meanwhile, dropped like a dying bird towards the slums. They continued up.

Jessie lay on the steps at the top of the pillar, just before the control platform.

"Cloud," she said, "I'm glad I got to see you… one last time."

"...Don't say 'last'," Cloud said.

"Barret's up top... Help him."

Barret stood on the platform, firing at a helicopter that circled the platform adjacent to the stone pillar. He was bleeding from his arms, but there were bodies of red-suited combatants scattered about the grated platform.

"Barret!" Tifa shouted.

Barret ceased firing for a moment and spun his head in their direction."Tifa! Cloud!" he said, a faint glimmer of hope in his voice. Cloud figured that there had not been much before they had arrived.

Tifa cast a fire spell in the vicinity of the helicopter, and there was a large flaming explosion that rocked it back and forth. Out of the helicopter jumped Reno, his long red ponytail flowing behind him. He landed cat-footed on the metal grate and ran to the controls.

The helicopter suddenly flew away from the pillar and towards Sector 6, effortlessly sailing over the wall that divided the sectors. It continued away as Reno reached the control panel and pushed several buttons. He entered security codes and finally, a large hatch opened in the control panel, revealing a large final button.

"You're too late!" Reno shouted to Cloud and Tifa. "Once I push this button..." his hand hovered teasingly over the console, almost waiting for them to move. With a smirk, he slammed his hand down on the console. "That's all, folks! Mission accomplished!"

"Cloud! We have to stop the bomb!" Tifa shouted.

"Yuh-huh?" Reno raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Yeah... no. Gonna have to say no to that. No one gets in the way of the Turks."

Reno reached to his waist and from it pulled a small metal stick. He brought it up to his face and swung it back down quickly, extending the stick into a multi-part rod that sparked with electricity. Standing at the controls, he simply looked at Cloud, and stuck out his tongue.

Grabbing his sword, Cloud rushed towards Reno, but his attack was repelled with Reno's electro-magnetic rod.

In the same fluid motion, Reno brought the rod around and struck Cloud in the forehead. Volts of electricity coursed through Cloud's body. He recoiled.

Tifa closed her eyes and Cloud felt the slight ethereal pull associated with magic. Barret didn't seem to feel it yet – of course not, he was a magic amateur. Tifa's spell was short, to not attract attention.

A flare erupted in Reno's face, and he stumbled back, batting at the flames in his hair. Tifa ended her spell and glanced at Barret to see if he had noticed. Barret nodded at Cloud, thinking that the mercenary had cast the spell.

Reno still clutched his head in pain. And in that moment of hesitation, Barret fired, his own blood morphing into bullets that caught Reno's chest. Cloud brought up his sword and broadsided Reno in the head, sending him careening off the rail and downwards. In a few mere seconds, Reno had been bested in every way possible, inflicting only minor discomfort to Cloud's head.

Running to the rail, Cloud looked down and was disappointed to find that the helicopter had returned and caught Reno midair, rising quickly to meet them.

"Cloud, quick, stop the bomb!" Tifa shouted.

Cloud ran to the control panel and looked at it. The combination of buttons, switches and codes confused him.

"This isn't an ordinary bomb," he said.

"That's right!" came a voice from off the platform. The three fighters looked to the helicopter to see a man in Turk uniform. He had long black hair and a mole in the middle of his forehead. Cloud recognized the mole; this man was the senior Turk – Tseng. "This isn't some pithy terrorist bomb! You deal with Turks; it'll blow as soon as some stupid jerk touches it!"

Barret raised his arm to shoot Tseng, aiming at the mole in the middle of his forehead. "You bastard!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Tseng said, "You might make me injure our special guest!"

Suddenly from out of the helicopter innards a face appeared. Barret had never seen her before, but Cloud and Tifa immediately recognized her as Aeris Gainsborough.

"Aeris!" Cloud shouted.

"Don't worry Tifa!" Aeris shouted from the helicopter, "She's safe!"

"Shut up!" Tseng shouted at her, and slapped her across the face, knocking her back into the helicopter with Reno's slumped figure. Cloud saw a fourth figure in the darkness of the helicopter, a dark figure.

"What are you going to do with Aeris?" Tifa asked.

Tseng paused and looked at her, "I'm not quite sure!" he shouted over the whir of the helicopter, "Our orders were to find and capture the last remaining Ancient!"

Tseng would have continued, but there was a small explosion right above the helicopter as a chunk of the stone blew away from the rest of the pillar and crashed into the control platform, sliding into the rail at the opposite end.

The helicopter suddenly rose and flew towards Sector 8 as more explosions ripped through the pillar, raining down pitch upon the three last members of AVALANCHE, who stood helpless on the control platform.

Two cables held the platform steady as it clung to the side of the pillar. One wire extended from the bottom of the control platform up to the gap between Sectors 6 and 7. The other went in the opposite direction, to the space between Sectors 7 and 8.

Quickly thinking, Barret grabbed one of the cables with his one hand and motioned for them all to climb on. Tifa hung on first and Cloud, making a leap onto the cable, cut it free with his sword as he landed.

The cable snapped free and they were nearly thrown from it. It began to swing down. Cloud heard crashing noises above him. The plate snapped free and started to come down over their heads.

They swung towards the gate to Sector 6 – it was open. The ceiling was closing in. Their arc was too great, Cloud was sure that they would collide with the ground, miss the gate, or be crushed mid-swing.

They got tunnel vision as the cable whipped them towards Sector 6. The upper plate fell, closing in above their heads.


	22. Book 1: Those Who Fight

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 22**

**Those Who Fight**

Official Shinra Inc. reports state that at approx 1800 hours on January sixth, the Sector 7 pillar fell under attack by members of the terrorist faction AVALANCHE. Word arrived at Shinra Headquarters moments later, and a massive evacuation effort, led by Reeve Tuesti, began. Some fifty thousand people were evacuated from Upper Sector 7 before 1900 hours. A squad of elite special combatants was sent to try and prevent the disaster, arriving at the pillar almost instantly. Efforts to prevent the bombing of the pillar were unsuccessful.

At 1900 hours, the Sector 7 pillar was destroyed, and the Sector 7 plate fell fifty metres on top of the slums below.

Survey troops moved through the wreckage quickly, assigned to aid any survivors. None found. An estimated five hundred thousand people living in Upper Sector 7 died in the immediate impact, and over one million registered slumling DNA patterns were found during a scan of the wreckage.

In the confidential records of the General Affairs Department (codename Turks), a subdivision of the Peace Preservation Department, two agents were assigned to interrogate Don Corneo, who was believed to be connected with the AVALANCHE attack.

Agent Reno was hospitalized in Sector 3 for injuries sustained while combating the terrorists. Agent Tseng promoted Agent-in-Training Elena to Turk status. Agent Rude spearheaded the operation.

Rude's report stated – very briefly – that Corneo had fled at approximately 1700 hours disguised as a chocobo cart driver. The chocobo cart driver left behind, identified as William Tiggory II (known colloquially as "Chocobo Will"), was interrogated and eliminated by Rude. A massacre had occurred inside the mansion, and the only survivor, identified as Kotch, was interrogated. In Rude's report, AVALANCHE infiltrated the mansion in a "bizarre fashion" and, upon getting close to the Don, revealed themselves. A massacre ensued. It is assumed that information about the pillar was tortured out of Corneo before he was left alive, and fled.

At 2000 hours, Don Corneo was classified as a low-priority fugitive and the operation was moved from the Turks to the Shinra general army. Agent Elena returned to Headquarters. The whereabouts of Agent Rude from 2000 to 2300 -information only, and is slumling classified to even Armon Heidegger and the President. At 2300 hours on January sixth, approximately three-hundred registered slumlings were reported missing.

**

* * *

**When Cloud came to, he saw only darkness. Very shortly afterwards, he realized he was buried alive. Pieces of debris had created a shield that had prevented his death.

A small hole in the rubble gave a small stream of artificial light, which flowed like liquid through the dirty air. Cloud followed the stream to the hole and peered through.

He saw the huge, plastic face of a moogle. It was a slide, in fact, it was the slide that, earlier today, he and Aeris had sat on. Now, it had a large metal pole sticking out of the side of its head. The entire playground had been efficiently destroyed, and he wondered if he had been the only survivor.

Pushing on the debris that held him captive, he was free, and stood looking at the park at the Sector 6 gate. They had made it, barely, but they had.

Tifa was already up, her blue dress was more torn than ever. She was waking Barret, who was on the ground. They all seemed to be unscathed, but Cloud's neck was cramped up.

Barret stirred, "Marlene?" he whispered.

All fell silent. Not even the screams of sirens of the whir of helicopters interrupted the deafening gloom that fell with that name. Barret, rising quickly, turned to the gate.

The great iron doors were open, but the way was shut. From the ground to the top of the gate, warped metal and twisted chunks of buildings melted together to create a new wall of wreckage. There were stains of blood on the metal, and wires hung down and about, dripping sparks every few seconds.

"Marlene!" Barret cried, and ran towards the ruins, "Damnit! To hell and back, damn Shinra!"

Raising his gun-arm, Barret open fired upon the wreckage. Drop by drop, his blood was drained and the bullets that came from the metallic cylinder bounced harmlessly off the rubble. Barret stopped when he felt too weak to continue, and fell to his knees.

"Marlene," he coughed, phlegm plugging his nose and his eyes bloodshot with tears, "an' Biggs, Wedge, Jessie! It's jes' not fair!"

Tifa walked up to him slowly, almost cautiously. Barret was lurched over. His arms were limp on the ground. He didn't have the strength to scream anymore. He didn't have the strength to do anything.

"Barret," Tifa said softly, "I think… I think Marlene is safe."

Barret stopped for a moment, remaining perfectly still. He looked up at Tifa, and she barely recognized the soft, broken eyes that gazed at her.

"Wh-what?" he asked softly, tears streaming down his face.

"Before she was carried away, Aeris said, 'don't worry, she's all right.' I think she was talking about Marlene…"

"What?" Barret asked again, and Tifa was not even sure if he was listening, "Marlene is alive?"

"I think so," Tifa said, now that she had to assure him, she doubted herself. Barret's eyes cleared a little, and the beginnings of a smile were tugging at the corner of his lips. But soon he went very sombre.

"But Biggs, Wedge, Jessie…"

"All of them were in the pillar when it came down."

"But, all of us, we fought together. This is so fucked up, Tifa. So fucked up. I don't wanna think of them as dead. "

Tifa did not feel like she could say anything to make him feel better. After all, she had only known AVALANCHE for a few weeks. All she could mutter was, "It's not your fault, Barret."

"No, Tifa," Barret said, rising to his feet. He looked at the ruins with a sense of determination, "It ain't us. It's never been nobody but the Shinra! And they're gunna keep killin' and destroyin, jes so they can line their pockets with gold! Well I won't have it! We've gotta keep fightin'!"

Tifa nodded, but Cloud just turned and walked away from them.

"What's up with him?" Barret asked. "Does that guy ever care at all?"

"Oh," Tifa said, "Aeris."

"Yeah, that girl, what's up with her?"

"I don't know, but she was the girl I left Marlene with."

"Damnit! Marlene!" Barret shouted, and bolted after Cloud. Tifa followed.

When they caught up to him, Cloud was walking slowly towards the gate to Sector 5. It was a six hour journey ahead of them if they ran (Aeris and Cloud had meandered) and on the other side was Aeris' house, where Cloud was headed.

"Cloud, where are you going?" Tifa shouted.

"I have to find out a few things," he said.

"About the Ancients?" Tifa asked, noting Tseng's reference to Aeris as 'The Last Ancient.'

Cloud stopped, he didn't turn to look at them, but his mind was filled with questions. He replied to those behind him, "Many things."

Suddenly, Cloud felt a rising pressure inside of his ears, the ringing began again and he clutched his head, falling to his knees. He was having an episode.

This time, however, his vision did not fade to white; instead it faded to blood red. And the voice that came, it was not just a voiceless message, it was a voice, and a voice that Cloud knew well.

'**_In my veins courses the blood of the Ancients! I am the rightful heir to this planet!'_**

"Sephiroth!" Cloud screamed, and Tifa must have heard him, because soon she was beside him, shaking him, she was trying to wake him up. But he was awake already, and could not be roused.

"Cloud!" Tifa shouted, barely heard through the ringing in his ears. "Cloud hold on!"

Sephiroth's voice did not repeat, it shouted loudly and disappeared. The ringing faded, and all he was left with was a splitting headache.

He stood up, and turned to Tifa and Barret. Barret looked at him with a gruff confusion, his arms were crossed and his eyes were returning back to their bright white. Tifa was looking at him with concern, and almost a hint of fear in her eyes.

"Many things," he repeated, and continued on towards Sector 5. When they reached Aeris' house, her mother would tell them how Aeris had come to be in the possession of a human woman.


	23. Elmyra's Recollection: The Last Ancient

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 23**

**Elmyra's Recollection: The Last Ancient**

'_The letter was there, sitting on the round table, only my teacup between us. Oh, and the saucer of course. I sat there, staring at the white envelope until my tea stopped steaming and turned cold. Reading it was a very difficult decision for me, for who knows what it might hold._

_It was bad news, I convinced myself. Bad news and I should leave it alone. If I didn't open it, that would mean I would never know. Never know how he died._

_And then what? Live alone in wonderment? I had been debating this all morning, and now the red blinking numbers on the clock on the wall told me in was half past afterlunch, and my morning tea was no longer of the morning._

_I picked the cup out of the saucer and tried to steady it as it slowly drifted towards my mouth. I sipped it. As cold as I expected. I put it down._

_Looking back, I suppose comparing cold tea to the corpse of my husband wasn't very logical, but I was in near hysterics and I needed something. Something to convince me to open that letter._

_With trembling hands, I reached over the tea and grabbed the envelope. Using the mail opener my husband had given me (for our second wedding anniversary) I cut open the top and pulled out the message._

* * *

_Elmyra Gainsborough_

_After months of service, your husband Phillip Gainsborough has been allowed one month leave from the war. Shinra Inc. has granted him transportation to the Train Station in Sector 7. His train will arrive at 0800 hours on August first._

_With Regards_

_General Heidegger_

_Fourth Brigade_

* * *

_Arriving at the train station at 7am on the morning of August first, I waited an hour for the train to arrive. When it did, I waited so anxiously as men from the fourth brigade exited and greeted their loved ones. But I stood alone at the bottom of the staircase, waiting._

_And waiting._

_When there was no one left coming out, the doorman looked inside the cars. But what about Phillip, wonders I, so I run up to the doorman._

"_Excuse me, isn't there anyone else on the train?"_

"_Sorry miss," the doorman said, "no one else today."_

_I went back to the staircase and sat. He must be on the next train, thought I. The train came and went, there was still no sign of Phillip. All day I waited, none of the trains held my husband._

_It was too long of a walk to get back to Sector 5, so I slept in the train graveyard until I heard the sound of the whistle blowing. She returned to the platform all day, eating lunch and dinner at the new pub called "Seventh Heaven."_

_I did this for six days._

_After a week of waiting at the train station, I arrived one morning to see a woman, lying on the staircase, and a little girl, leaning over her, crying._

_One used to see this sort of thing a lot during the war, but not here, not inside the city. The fact that she was a female stunned me moreso._

_I couldn't stand there and do nothing, so I ran to them. The woman looked up at me. Her face was indescribably beautiful, and she seemed to look right through me appearance and into my soul. The only other person who ever did that before her was Phillip._

_Her last words were, "Please take Aeris somewhere safe." _

_My husband never came back. I had no child. I was lonely. The little girl looked at me with tears in her eyes. In her hands, the young Aeris held a white orb, it looked like Materia but it was very pale._

_I looked at the train, which was empty yet again. The doorman came to take the body into the train graveyard._

"_Sorry, miss," the doorman said, "Shinra's order I have to dispose of the resting."_

"_That's all right," I said, and looked back at the girl called Aeris. "Come, Aeris, I will take you home with me. Do you like tea?"_

* * *

_Aeris and I became close very quickly. That child loved to talk. She used to talk to me about everything. She told me how she escaped from some kind of research laboratory, and that her mother had already returned to the Planet, so she wasn't lonely. I was puzzled by this, and asked Aeris if she meant that her mother had gone to the heavens, a star in the sky. Aeris shook her head quickly and replied, "No, it's this planet."_

_She was a mysterious child in many ways. For instance, when she was seven she had found a small green orb in town and brought it home. I had cut her finger on a broken cupboard, Aeris had used the Materia to heal her mother's wound. So bewildered by the little girl's skill in magic, I stumbled backwards and fell right on my rear, which had made Aeris laugh, which in turn made me laugh._

* * *

_I sat drinking my tea one morning, perfectly content. Aeris was eight, I believe, at this point, and she came down the staircase, and looked at me with a certain dread, a guiltiness, as if she had done something awful._

"_Aeris, what is it, what's wrong?"_

"_Mom, don't cry," said Aeris._

"_Why would I cry?"_

"_Someone near to you has just died. His soul was coming to see you, but he had already returned to the planet."_

_That was her way of dealing with death, I knew it. But I had never told her about my husband, nor that I ever had one. It scared me quite a bit, as I felt the wind getting chillier. Swallowing it, I said, "Aeris, would you like some tea?"_

"_Oh yes!" Aeris said, climbing onto the chair and pouring it herself._

_Two days later, a letter from Shinra Inc. arrived. I couldn't bare to open it, so Aeris opened it and read it to me. Phillip had been killed, my dear Phillip. _

* * *

_Much happened after that, but we were happy. Aeris had discovered an abandoned Church at the edge of town, and had cultivated a small flower business there. When Aeris was ten, we were reading the paper, Sephiroth was quite the hero, he had been in the fourth brigade just like Phillip, and I wondered if they had been friends._

_There was a knock on the door, and I answered it. Standing in the doorway was a man in a black suit, he had a mole in the center of his forehead._

"_Hello," the man said, "my name is Tseng, does an Aeris live here?"_

_Aeris walked up to me and held on to my dress. She used to do that sort of thing when she was little, but at such an old age, it was obvious that she knew about this more than I did._

"_Aeris belongs to Shinra Inc." Tseng said, "We would like her returned to us."_

"_I beg your pardon?" I asked. 'Belongs to'? Is this the company my husband fought and died for?_

"_I do not belong to Shinra! I belong to Elmyra, my mom!" Aeris shouted, and I backed her up completely._

"_Aeris, you are different," Tseng said, "Your real mother was an 'Ancient.'"_

"_That's not true!" Aeris lied._

"_Surely you hear voices sometimes when you're all alone," Tseng said._

"_No! He's wrong I'm not an Ancient!" Aeris shouted and ran upstairs._

_But I knew. Aeris had tried to hide it so well, but I knew of her mysterious ability with Materia, and she spoke often in her room, in a language I could not understand._

"_Aeris and I are well known in this town," I said to Tseng, "If anything should happen to us, you would have to wipe out the entire town to stop them from overthrowing you."_

"_It hasn't come to that… yet. Aeris is still young. We'll be in touch."_

_Tseng turned and walked away. After that day, the Turks had been keeping a close tab on her, and had even tried to nab her when she was alone. When Aeris was twelve she had saved enough from selling flowers to people in town that she bought a full metal staff. She had bought it at half price, for we were good friends with the man at the weapon store, and he knew our situation well._

* * *

_Six years before recounting this story, Aeris was sixteen. I had gotten a job in town as a teacher. The school consisted of one room, and only twelve children could afford to be taught. Some adults attended my class as well, for education was rare in Midgar. To honor my husband, I taught them history. The war was ending, thanks to Sephiroth. I taught them everything I had learned over the years, of Shinra, Midgar, and most importantly, the war with Wutai._

_Coming home one day, I found Aeris in her bedroom with a boy. His eyes glowed green, but they looked at me with a naked guilt._

"_I think I'd best be leaving…" said the boy, and grabbed his clothes, which were navy blue. He also had two shoulder plates and an obscenely large sword._

_Upon talking with Aeris, I learned that he was a member of first Class SOLDIER, the same as Sephiroth. She was very much in love with him. I sympathized with Aeris, and said nothing more. My husband was a warrior too, it was only natural that my daughter should share the same fate. I just didn't want her to get hurt._

_Aeris' boyfriend had left on a mission shortly after and had never returned. It was the first time in ten years that I had seen Aeris cry._

_The strangest thing though, is that she swore that he was not dead. There had been no word from him for six years, and she still clung onto life. Aeris, who had sensed the death of my husband from all the way around the world, believed that her boyfriend was still alive._

_After a while, however, she stopped talking about him. She had started selling flowers on the top plate, for flowers were very rare in Midgar._

_When she was twenty-two, Aeris brought home another member of SOLDIER. This one had blonde spiky hair and a similar sword on his back to the one her last boyfriend carried. _

_Aeris had been through enough with that other SOLDIER. Warriors were bad news, and this one looked no different. I had advised the new boyfriend, whose name I learned was Cloud, to leave in the night._

* * *

_When I awoke, Aeris and Cloud were gone together. I spent the day worrying about her, Sector 6 is not an area to be treaded lightly. But she returned at the end of the day, sprinting. Holding on to her hand was a small girl._

_It reminded me of when I had taken Aeris in. Was Aeris old enough, now? To walk on her own?_

_My thoughts were interrupted by the helicopter's whir, and they landed in front of the house. Tseng leapt out and grabbed the girl, and Aeris screamed bloody murder._

"_Take me instead, Tseng!" she shouted._

_Tseng nodded and let the child go. Aeris shooed the girl into my arms and walked over to Tseng. Tseng extended his arm, welcoming her into the helicopter._

_Putting the girl behind me, I ran from the house calling out for Tseng. Tseng looked out of the vehicle at me._

"_Tseng!" I shouted over the ruckus from the helicopter, "She means a lot to you, too!"_

_It was true, over the years of tracking her, Tseng and Aeris had almost become friends. But I assumed that Shinra was pressing them hard to take her now._

_I stayed up late, drinking tea with the girl, whose name was Marlene. Apparrently, this Cloud had gotten her into the whole mess. I assumed they would be back for their child, so after I put Marlene to sleep, I made another pot of tea and waited until Cloud arrived again. That was just a few minutes ago, when I began recounting my tale.'_


	24. Book 1: Going Up

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 24**

**Going Up**

"It's amazing," Cloud said calmly, "how Aeris has avoided Shinra for all these years."

"Shinra needs her," Elmyra said, "so I guess they wouldn't harm her."

Cloud recalled Aeris getting shot at the church two days ago. _'Has it only been that long since we've met?_' He thought. He felt like he'd known Aeris forever.

"But, why now?" Tifa asked.

"She brought a little girl with her," Elmyra explained. "Tseng caught the girl, and offered an exchange. Aeris accepted."

"Marlene," Cloud said.

"Marlene!" Barret shouted, "Aeris was caught because of Marlene?" Turning to Elmyra, Barret explained, "I'm sorry. Marlene's my daughter. I'm really sorry."

"You're her father?" Elmyra asked. Cloud assumed Elmyra was surprised because of the racial difference of Barret and Marlene. Walking up to Barret slowly, Elmyra looked into his eyes. Raising her hand, she slapped Barret hard across the face. His skin felt like leather and his head was like a stone, it did not flinch, but when she took her hand down she saw that her message had gotten across. She spoke just in case.

"How in the world could you ever leave a child alone like that!" she shouted.

"Please don't start with that," Barret's voice was breaking again, "I'm always thinkin' about what might happen to Marlene, if I... You gotta understand somethin'. I don't got any answers. I wanna be with Marlene... But I gotta fight. 'Cause if I don't, the Planet's gonna die!"

Gaining confidence, Barret regained his commanding posture, "So I'm gonna keep fightin!"

Cloud hummed in acknowledgement. Barret turned to Elmyra, "But inside I'm always thinkin' of her. I just wanna be with her, always. See? I'm goin' in circles, now."

"I think I know what you mean," Elmyra said, "She's upstairs asleep, why don't you go and see her?"

Barret had to turn sideways to pass between the table and the small record shelf. Once he did, he charged up the stairs. Tifa and Cloud were left in Elmyra's house.

"Aeris means everything in the world to me," Elmyra said.

"I know," Cloud said, and he almost continued with 'me too,' but stopped himself. He did not mean that, he thought, that would be weird. "We'll get her back."

"It was my fault," Tifa said, "I was the one who got Aeris involved in this."

"Don't say that," Elmyra said, "Aeris doesn't think so."

Walking past the table, Cloud moved upstairs to see Barret.

* * *

Marlene was not Barret's child. Barret had a wife once, but she had died before they had children. Instead, Marlene was the child of a man named Dyne, who was Barret's childhood friend. When she was a newborn, Dyne and his wife were killed by Shinra troops and Barret saved Marlene. Raising her as his own, Marlene was most likely the only thing that kept Barret from wanting to destroy everything. Shinra had taken away everything that he had loved.

Marlene was in the guest room, on the bed where Cloud had slept not too long ago. She had been sleeping peacefully. Barret moved into the room silently and crouched beside her, watching her. She was so small, small enough to sit on his shoulder (which she did frequently).

As he watched her, he thought of everything they had been through. The burning of Barret's hometown, their journey to Midgar. The forming of AVALANCHE. And now that was all over. Marlene was, once again, the only thing he had left. Tifa as well, he supposed, but Cloud didn't seem the type to stick around.

Marlene stirred and opened her eyes.

"Papa?" she asked sleepily, bringing her tiny hands up to her face and rubbing her eyes. Barret began to cry.

"I'm so glad," he sobbed, moving to hug her. She accepted, but she could not get her arms around his neck. She rested them on either side. "I'm so glad you're all right," he weeped, and sunk his face into her .

"Papa, don't cry," Marlene said, and she began to laugh, "your whiskers tickle!"

Barret began to laugh as well, and his beard tickled Marlene more. Soon, they separated and rolled back, laughing.

Cloud knocked on the open door as he stood in the hallway. Barret looked at him.

"Hi, Cloud!" Marlene said.

"You've certainly changed your mind about me," Cloud said.

"Guess what? Guess what? Aeris asked me all sorts of questions, like what kind of person you are!" Marlene said, "I bet she likes you, Cloud!"

"I don't know," Cloud replied.

"Dummy!" Marlene shouted, and crawled back into bed quickly, sitting up.

Barret had stood up and was facing Cloud. "You gonna go help Aeris, right? She's done so much for me."

"Yeah, it looks like they took her to Shinra Headquarters."

"If the Shinra're involved, I ain't stayin' here! I'm comin', too!"

Cloud looked at Marlene. She seemed unaffected. "I'll meet you outside," Cloud said, and left him alone with Marlene.

Walking down the stairs, he saw that Elmyra and Tifa were drinking tea and laughing softly. He walked past and headed for the door. Tifa swivelled in her chair and faced Cloud, legs crossed.

"You're going after Aeris, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"I'm coming too," Tifa said, reaching back to put her teacup back on its saucer.

"We're going right into Shinra Headquarters," Cloud said, "you gotta be prepared for the worst."

"I know," Tifa said, "right now, I feel I have to push myself to the limit. If I stayed here, I'd go crazy."

Barret lumbered down the stairs, holding on to the rail with his hand. When he reached the bottom, he moved to Elmyra.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but could you take care of Marlene a bit longer?"

"Yes," said Elmyra, "I don't mind."

"This place is dangerous now," Cloud explained, "you'd better go somewhere else."

After a long pause, Elmyra agreed, "You're right. But promise me that you'll come back for her, Barret. Don't get yourself killed."

"That seems like a fair proposition," Barret said, and they walked out of the house.

The outside of the house was beautiful as always, for Aeris had gathered many flowers from the church and pots full of them lined the house.

"How do we get to the Shinra building?" Tifa asked.

"There ain't no train that goes up there anymore," Barret said.

"Well," Cloud thought, "let's go to Wall Market. We might be able to find something there."

* * *

Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace and Tifa Lockheart set out on a quest to save the last Ancient from the clutches of the Shinra empire. Shortly after setting out, they realized that it was now five in the morning and they were exhausted. Going back to Elmyra's house, they spent the night there. Barret and Marlene took the guest room, and Tifa and Cloud shared Aeris' room. Cloud, feeling uncomfortable, decided to sleep on the floor, which was covered in soft carpet.

At eight in the morning, they woke and set out on their quest. Travelling seven hours through Sector 6 (Cloud had memorized every turn now) they arrived at Wall Market, to search for a clue as to how to get onto the upper plate.

Finding something in Wall Market was not as daunting a task as they expected. Almost immediately after entering the Market, a group of four children ran past. The leader, donning a blue hat, shouted, "Wanna see something awesome, guys? Follow me!"

The children ran through the market, and Cloud was compelled to follow. Passing Don Corneo's mansion, Cloud saw the corpse of Corneo's cart driver, Chocobo Will, in the Don's stable. The Chocobo Cart was gone. Will's corpse lay there quietly, unnoticed by anyone else. He moved on.

After following the children for a ways, they came to face the wall between Sector 6 and the former Sector 7. One child, the shortest and the pudgiest, stood at the wall looking up.

Walking up to the child, Cloud asked, "Where did your friends go?"

"Everyone climbed up this wire," the child said, motioning to the wire that hung down beside him, "it looks too scary."

The wire was thick, and it did not seem to be electrically charged. Looking up, Cloud saw that it hung down from the top plate. It must have connected into Sector 7 before its collapse. Seemed a tad convenient.

"Can we climb it?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah," the kid said, "it leads to the upper world. That's what they told me."

"All right!" Barret shouted, "We climb this wire!"

"There is no way we can do this," Cloud scoffed, "You know how far this goes up?"

"There is a way!" Barret shouted. He walked over and grabbed the wire, holding it up for Cloud to see. "What does this look like?"

"A wire," Cloud replied listlessly.

"Well to me, it looks like a golden, shiny wire of hope."

Silence fell. Even the child gave Barret a look of disparagement. After a few moments, Tifa agreed. Looking up, she said, "He's right. This seems like the only way to save Aeris."

"Barret," Cloud said, "that was a bad analogy. But I understand how you feel."

Barret clenched the wire tightly and began to climb. Cloud was next, letting Tifa go last. Up they climbed. The wire was strong, allowing for them to travel without slipping.

After a long while, the wall ended. It had been damaged by the fall, but the walls separating Sectors were only twenty metres high.

The two children were sitting on the wall, looking out. Cloud looked out and saw the ruins of Sector 7.

It was horrific. Each skyscraper had collapsed, bringing the city to level ground. The slums could not be seen, for the top plate sat directly on top. It was hard to distinguish between chunks of buildings and upside-down vehicles. When Cloud looked directly downwards, at the closest area, he could see the ash-covered bodies. There were so many bodies.

"Man," said one of the children, "this is horrible!"

"My dad says it's the Shinra's doing," said the boy in the blue hat.

Barret almost smiled when the other child said, "Bullshit. Your dad's stupid."

"Is not!"

"Why else would he disappear in the middle of the night?"

"He'll come back, you'll see!"

Barret held back from saying anything, and they continued upwards. Wreckage from the top plate began to hang down as livewires danced about in the air. Cloud wondered why Shinra had not turned off the power breakers, but then realized it was probably to prevent them from climbing to the upper plate.

They climbed and they climbed. After another twenty-five metres, Barret reached his hand up and grabbed the edge of the top plate. Hoisting himself up, Barret disappeared.

Cloud lifted himself up, and watched as Tifa came up last, the gaping hole of Sector 7 behind her.

The sky was filled with pollution. Great spotlights shone on the heavens. Cloud followed the stream of light down to the base of the Shinra Headquarters, which was directly ahead.

The building was metal, but plated with pearl. It shone a brilliant white. Billows of smoke rose from great stacks all along the side. Between the team and the building, there was a moat of green mako vapour. But there was a way to cross, and it was the metal ground they stood on.

Making sure the buster sword was clipped securely to his back, Cloud looked at his teammates. They seemed ready to go. They moved towards the entrance.

"Hey," Barret said as they passed between great green geysers, "you outta know this building well."

"Actually," Cloud thought, "this is the first time I've ever been to the headquarters."

"I've heard about this place before," Barret said, "Every floor above the sixtieth is special, and not easy to get to – even for employees. Must be where they took Aeris."

They reached the entrance. There were six glass doors that all led into the lobby, and there was a great foyer before them. Six steps led to the foyer, and Barret didn't hesitate to march up them. Peering in through the glass doors, Barret said, "The security's pretty light now. Alright, let's go!"

Tifa shouted, "Wait a minute! You're not thinking of just going right through the main entrance, are you?"

"What does it look like?" Barret asked, "I'm gonna kick some Shinra ass, and—"

Tifa became livid. "That's not going to work. Drawing attention to ourselves in the lobby isn't going to help us get to Aeris, it will only get us killed. We're not here to fight Shinra. We're here to save Aeris. As far as Shinra knows, we died in Sector 7. They won't be expecting an infiltration."

"They won't be expectin' a head-on attack neither! Tifa, there ain't gonna be no other way! Do you expect some magical staircase be just around the corner, leadin' to the top? If we keep wastin' time like this, Aeris'll—"

"I know that! But if we get caught here—"

"We're finding another way," Cloud interrupted. "I agree with Tifa."

Tifa smiled at Cloud.

"Well, have fun being wussies!" Barret shouted, "But I'm goin' in the front!" Barret clambered up the stairs towards the doors.

Tifa and Cloud exchanged frustrated glances, and hurried up the stairs after him.


	25. Book 1: The Building of Pearl and Ivory

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 25**

**The Building of Pearl and Ivory**

The lobby of the Shinra Headquarters was nearly empty, and death danced in the minds of the few people left in it. The lobby was tiered, like a cake, and the main elevators were accessed from the top of the second landing. Staircases curved along either wall, connecting all the tiers. A few employees trudged sleepily up and down them – some were leaving after working until morning, some arriving after a sleepless night. In all cases, Sector 7 had haunted their thoughts.

Anna sat at the main reception desk, gazing worriedly at the nameplate on the desk. Hi! My name is Rhonda! It read. Another victim of AVALANCHE's latest (and greatest) attack. Anna recalled with a heartbroken enthusiasm Rhonda's heroic life story, of a slumling with nothing who came to the top plate, and who, on wits alone, made a name for herself. She came up as an orphaned child, with twenty gil to her name, and sat in a twenty-four hour all-you-can-eat joint – The Goblin Bar, Anna recalled. Since they never closed the restaurant, Rhonda sat in the booth for sixteen years, napping in the seat and leaving only occasionally, for food and washroom breaks. The Goblin Bar had no pre-written policy on the matter, and couldn't lawfully kick her out. Rhonda eventually befriended the staff and grew into a beautiful young woman, living at the diner until she caught the attention of President Shinra's son, and when he asked for her hand, she became an heiress-to-be of Shinra Inc. She got the job of lobby receptionist, was able to leave the restaurant, and moved into a high-rise in Sector 7. A truly inspiring princess story, with a tragic end – killed at the hands of terrorists.

Anna sat at Rhonda's usual place, her palms sweaty. The call was made to her after Rhonda was not counted among those evacuated. Anna went from a temporary part-time position as coat check employee for Shinra gala events to Rhonda's coveted position literally overnight.

With no skills or experience in the workforce, and barely a woman at seventeen years of age, Anna gazed around the lobby with a certain dread. Like everyone in the lobby, her thoughts drifted aimlessly, often returning to the million corpses in the Sector 7 wreckage. She counted the cars on display at the back of the lobby (underneath the landings). Seven cars. Sector 7. One of them was a blue three-wheeled pickup truck. Anna lived in Sector 3. Sector 7. She looked at the clock. 6:07pm, January seventh. Sector 7. She looked at the carpets. A deep, amethyst purple. Unlike the official Shinra colours. Crimson and white. Blood and bone. Sector 7.

Moreover, Anna's anxiety and crippling lack of self-confidence was made worse by her new position at the front-line of Shinra Headquarters. Every new employee would be asking her questions that as a coat check girl she never needed to know. The computer in front of her had a maze-like database of appointments, schedules, employee information, and an ever-growing to-do list from all of her superiors, most were still addressed to Rhonda, some were from department heads – people so important it made Anna's head spin when she saw their name at the top of an angry order. Reeve Tuesti wants her to cancel all of his appointments for the next week. Yaphet Palmer is leaving work early. President Cathal Shinra is organizing an emergency meeting for all department heads.

Anna's hand trembled. There was too much at stake, too many things to consider. Another attack from AVALANCHE hadn't even crossed her mind until they barged in through the front door.

At first, her mind didn't register it, as if the bombings around Midgar had only happened on the telly, that these kind of things happened to other people, and that it wasn't ever a real threat to her. Not really. A huge man hurried inside, looking around frantically. Anna's mind went to her recently practiced speech. "Excuse me, sir? If you don't have an appointment, you'll have to—"

"Don't need no appointment!" the man said gruffly. "This is a 'mergency!"

The man raised his right arm and pointed at the sole security guard. His arm was a grotesque hybrid of veins and tubes, muscle and metal. Firing thrice, the intruder killed the security guard.

"Anyone who don't wanna get their face bashed in better git outta the way!" he yelled.

Anna's next move, had she known better, should have been to press the emergency roboguard knob, which would have activated the mechanized security force on the lowest landing. The roboguards would have easily done in the intruder. Instead, Anna was a mess of screams and sobs. She buckled underneath the desk, allowing the intruder to be joined by two comrades, and they made their way up the stairs towards the elevators, shooting the security cameras on their way up. Anna got up from her desk, looked at the terrorists running up one of the staircases. They weren't looking at her. She suppressed a loud sob as she bolted for the front doors. She let out her screams as she pulled the glass doors open, and she ran out, down the stairs and towards home, avoiding death for the rest of the day.

* * *

Barret, Cloud and Tifa stood at the top tier. The landings cascaded down behind them. Barret gently pressed the elevator call button and waited for the elevator at the far wall. On either side, floor to ceiling windows gazed out above Midgar. Cloud looked through the west window and saw the ruins of Sector 7. It was an ever present horror. He walked to the other side and gazed out the east window. Sector 3, and the Sector 3 superhighway were below him. The idea of being in the centre of Midgar really presented itself. He was able to reach any sector in the city with a few mere steps. He was stricken with the awe of it.

"This is suicide," Tifa muttered.

Barret protested, "We're in one piece, only had ta kill one guy, everyone else ran like rats!"

Cloud hummed, gazing down at the highway. "It doesn't look like they've been alerted to our presence yet, either. I hate to say it, but Barret got lucky."

"You damn right."

A soft pinging noise was heard, and the door to the elevator slid open. They walked inside.

"What the hell?" Barret asked. "Why're there only fifty-nine floors on this trip? This building's gotta have more than that."

"Floor sixty and up are special," Cloud explained, pressing the button numbered 59. The elevator began to move. "They're for authorized personnel only; you can only get to them with a special elevator. Each floor has its own unique keycard, only the top guys have all-access cards."

Music wheezed out of a small speaker in the corner. The melodies were repetitive and annoying. It reminded them of bad composers of years gone, before the creation of the piano, and the arrival of much better composers. The world had too much good music to let this continue.

Tifa, who herself was quite talented at the piano, ripped the speaker out of the corner of the elevator. Barret laughed. Cloud, however, seemed distant.

"What's wrong?" Tifa asked.

"I didn't want to start a ruckus 'till we saved Aeris," Cloud said, "I should have known that was impossible."

Barret snickered.

"What is it?" Cloud asked, and then an afterthought, "You're giving me the willies."

"So there are times when even you fight for other people," Barret said, "I am impressed."

"Who cares if you're impressed?"

"You can keep selling that cold-man routine, but s'too late. I've stopped buyin."

Cloud snorted, "I'm very happy, I'm _ecstatic_ that you got to barge in guns blazing, but from here to floor seventy, we have to play it my way. We won't get any keycards using brute force or scare tactics. We need to use our knowledge to anticipate, strategize and effectively acquire them."

Barret stood still for a moment, his heaving breaths paused. "Damn Cloud. Sometimes I forgot that you was in SOLDIER."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Cloud asked with a smirk. "Listen to what I have to say now." He opened up the channel in his mind that led to his encyclopaedic knowledge of Shinra's inner workings. It had been so long since he had needed to remember. Information came in bubbles of clarity, fading quickly. Cloud relayed them as best he could.

"Floor sixty is for the big security staff. We don't want to go there – it's swarming with security, roboguards, all monitoring all the other floors."

"So we definitely want to go there!" Barret said. "If we take 'em out, they'll never see us sneakin' around the other floors."

"There's too many of them. Even if we succeeded, they would inform the President before they went down, and we'd lose everything. Better to take the risk of them seeing us on the cameras. They could mistake us for employees, I'm still in SOLDIER uniform, after all."

"Damn, man. That thing must stink."

"If I may continue... Floor sixty-one is the staff lounge, that's probably where we'll have the most success. Most employees in the building have access to that floor. It's filled with artificial trees and gardens, so we'll have plenty of cover from cameras and people we want to avoid. We can squeeze out a couple of keycards and double our chances of finding Aeris before anyone knows we're here.

"Floor sixty-two is the government offices. It's also the Shinra library archives, and that's definitely not where they would be holding Aeris. If we can bypass that floor altogether, that'd be good.

"Floor sixty-three is basically a huge storage area. Materia, potions, phoenix downs and artefacts are kept there."

"So we should raid that place, right?" Barret asked. "It'd help in the battles to come."

Cloud held his tongue. He didn't want to remind Barret that AVALANCHE was dead, and there would be no more battles to come. Rescuing Aeris would be their last mission together. _'And then what?'_ he asked himself.

Cloud steeled himself and addressed Barret. "Getting to that floor would be hard enough, but looting it would be like robbing a bank vault."

"But Cloud! Phoenix downs!"

"I understand what's up there. Don't talk to me like I'm a kid. I've assessed the risk and we can't take it. You're welcome to try another day, but that's not what we're here for. Moving on. Floor sixty-four is the spa. It's mostly inhabited by the bigwigs, but sometimes other employees are allowed in. If we can get in there, we'll be set. The bigwigs can access every floor, one of their keycards would be essential. From there, it won't be hard to find Aeris."

Barret asked, "What's above that?"

"What?"

"Floor sixty-five, Cloud. What's on that floor?"

"I can't remember. It's all top drawer Shinra stuff from there up. I don't know."

"Well Aeris don't sound like she's gonna be on any of the floors you described, so she's probably up above. They have some special kidnapping floor?"

"Barret, do you realize you're in the Shinra Headquarters, right? The most important building on the Planet, right? We aren't in a reactor. We are standing in the centre of the world, the political, cultural, and technological hub of everything we've ever known. We aren't just in Midgar anymore. We're at the core. Like I said, our game plan is getting to the two lounges. More people means more keycards."

A slight flutter in their stomachs alerted them to the elevator stopping. Cloud's eyes darted to the red number above the doors. They were only on the thirtieth floor. Cloud motioned for Tifa and Barret to be on alert.

The elevator doors slid open, revealing a frail looking man with arms full of paperwork. Behind him, new models of Shinra automobiles were being tested – Cloud's eye caught a particularly attractive motorcycle, but he focused more on the man.

The gentleman stepped into the elevator beside them as the doors closed. He reached for the button marked 59, but saw that it had already been pushed. The elevator continued to rise, in a tense silence.

Cloud and Tifa exchanged worried glances from either side of the greying man in the earth-toned suit. Barret, looming behind the worked, raised his gun arm slowly until it pressed gently into the back of the man's head.

"Don't suppose you're headin' above the sixtieth floor?" Barret asked.

The man didn't seem fazed at all. "That's right," he said.

Barret's eyes moved to Cloud. "Is there anything stopping me from wastin' this guy here an' now?"

Cloud shrugged, "The only thing it hinders is how we're going to look when this elevator opens again. Which floor is your keycard for?"

The man gave Cloud an incredulous look. "Wait, you don't know who I am? Well, that's just great. Not that I'm surprised. Go ahead and waste me then."

Cloud's eyes wandered down to the gold-plated nametag. Tephra Domino. Mayor of Midgar.

It only took Cloud a moment to re-strategize. "Barret? New plan. We escort the mayor back to his office, promising to let him live if he helps us avoid detection."

Barret and Tifa tensed up, struck, finally, by the gravity of the situation. Cloud was now completely sure that they were on the same page as him.

Domino shrugged. "That works too."

The elevator slowed once more as they reached the fifty-ninth floor. "Game time, people," Cloud said. "Domino, play it cool and nobody dies."


	26. Book 1: Above the Fifty Ninth Floor

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 26**

**Above the Fifty-ninth Floor**

The glass elevators went from the surface of the plate to the top of the ivory tower, and could – in theory – be accessed from the lobby, but they were useless without a keycard to operate them.

When the four of them crammed into one of the twin elevators, Cloud stared in wonderment at the new lift he had entered. They were enclosed in a glass cylinder, with transparent ceilings and floors. Domino's keycard slid into the glass podium, and the elevator smoothly began to slide up towards the sixty-second floor.

Below them, Sector 4 bustled in the evening – business as usual. Barret relaxed a little – he had barely breathed on the long walk across the fifty-ninth floor, from the regular elevators on the north side of the building to the southeast corner, where the special elevators were. Huge guards in red armoured plates had eyed them trailing the mayor, but Domino had been surprisingly cooperative. Now, they could breathe easy.

"You pretty damn odd for a hostage," Barret scratched his face. "You know we're AVALANCHE, dontcha?"

"I'm not a hostage," Domino said matter-of-factly, "and I don't care who you are."

Barret's brow furrowed at Domino's first comment, and his frown deepened at the second.

"But you," Domino nodded to Cloud. "You're that ex-SOLDIER?"

Cloud nodded.

"Then you have the authority to treat with me. We'll speak in my office."

The elevator opened and they exited the glass elevator into a series of empty hallways. It was quiet here. The din of Midgar was muted, and the lack of noise sounded like pieces of felt rubbing together. Cloud was irritated at the quiet.

Domino took point and walked past doors to different rooms. The rooms were labelled after Shinra departments, Cloud passed a plaque that read Department of Space Research, and another that read Weapons Department. Before Midgar had been built, Shinra operated out of Cloud and Tifa's hometown. Cloud recalled that they never moved the old records from Nibelheim to Midgar. He had seen the old archives with his own eyes. Gone now. All gone.

Domino stopped in front of a door. A huge, beefy man stood sentry outside the door. "It's okay, Hart. They're with me," Domino announced and opened the door – it led into a cushy office.

Cloud, Tifa and Barret entered the room after Domino. Hart, the muscled deputy mayor, closed the door behind them.

Domino moved behind the desk. Barret trained his gun-arm on him.

"Don't even thinka pressin' no alert buttons or nothin!"

"I won't," said the mayor squarely. "Have a seat if you'd like."

Cloud had kept a cool head throughout this ordeal, and he felt it appropriate to move to the nearest chair, unclipping his sword from his back. Domino sat. Then, Cloud sat.

Cloud began, "This interrogation can be as pleasant as you want it to be."

"Spare me your artificial courtesy. It's annoying. If I wanted to treat with something fake, I wouldn't have asked for a SOLDIER. Ask me a question. Trust me if you wish."

"Where do they keep prisoners here?"

Domino's eyebrows flew towards the ceiling. "That was about the most surprising question I've ever heard. You don't want security codes, information on President Shinra's current whereabouts, where to plant a bomb? You _are_ terrorists, correct?"

"We're not here to end Shinra."

"Well why not?" Domino sounded almost angry – it was the only emotion he had expressed so far.

Cloud thought, "Maybe our thirst for blood has been sated at the moment. In case you haven't noticed, we took out a chunk of your city yesterday."

Domino rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that. It's unbecoming of a professional to take credit for work he didn't do."

Barret and Tifa exchanged glances.

Domino muttered, "And here, I thought you were out to get revenge for being framed like that. You're a bunch of chumps. Why do you want to know about the headquarter cells? Giving yourselves up?"

"Shinra has something of ours, we came to retrieve it, and then we'll go." Cloud considered stopping there, but he continued. "Sector 7 was a bold move; it certainly asserted your power. We will lie low for the time being, and we don't intend to make ourselves known here tonight."

"Spoken like a true SOLDIER. That was a nice little speech you just improvised. You said a lot with a little. I respect that. What rank were you?"

"First."

Domino hummed. "No surprises here. Well, first-class SOLDIER, you're out of luck. The prison cells are on the sixty-seventh floor, but there's been no activity there all day. You're welcome to search it though. I'll give you my keycard if you will consider a suggestion with it as well. Try this: _make yourselves known here tonight_."

Cloud said, "I'm sorry?"

"I'm handing you a keycard that accesses all floors of the Shinra Headquarters. In a matter of hours, Shinra will de-activate it, but in the meanwhile, you can ride that glass elevator right into his office. Even better! In a matter of minutes, every department head and the president himself are having an emergency meeting to debrief the Sector 7 Incident. You could wander into the board room and blow their heads off! The very idea that you wouldn't consider this is only more proof that you couldn't have been involved with Sector 7. You don't think big enough."

"Some of us do!" Barret protested. "Hell, that's what I've been sayin' all night! I like this guy!"

Cloud leaned forward in his chair. "Why are you suggesting this? What's your angle?"

"It's simple. I am the mayor of the most powerful city in the world, but I am bound and shackled by the corporation. I want them all to die." Domino took a moment for that to sink in. "I care about the world – care about this city – too much to allow it to be ruled by the oppressive might of a goddamn electric company. Government should be put back where it belongs – in power. Our chance meeting could be mutually beneficial. You can use me to destroy what you believe to be a corrupt government, and I'll use you to restore a pure government. Everybody wins."

He was lying, Cloud knew it. But his argument was sound. "We'll consider it. You promised a keycard with that suggestion."

Domino produced the small, white plastic card. He slid it over the table towards Cloud, who plucked it off the edge and held it tightly between his fingers. "Thanks."

"The executive floor is the sixty-sixth," Domino explained. "That's where the board room is. All the bigwigs are having a meeting there at 6:30. Everyone was invited to the party, except yours truly. There's surprisingly low security on that floor, and the Turks have better things to do than babysit at corporate playtime. Thanks to Hart, I have an alibi, so you kids have fun at the slaughter."

Cloud stood and denied the instinct to shake the mayor's hand. "Thanks."

He turned to leave, but Domino said, "One last favour!"

Thoughts of Don Corneo's interrogation echoed in Cloud's mind, and he turned slowly to Domino. He should have trusted his instincts, now he was going to learn the truth, too late. "What?" Cloud asked.

"I don't want you to ever take credit for Sector 7 again." Domino's eyes were full of sadness. "That kind of blood on your hands... simply being powerless to prevent it, even with foreknowledge, it is not something to brag about."

Cloud looked at Barret, who had the same defeated expression on his face. The leader of AVALANCHE nodded, "Know what ya mean. Hey, when this's all over, let's discuss mako—"

"No," Domino shook his head. "Just because we have a common enemy does not make us friends. You may not have destroyed Sector 7, but you destroyed two reactors, damaged my city and killed my citizens. Do not think that I would treat you with mercy once Shinra is gone. You have to leave now."

They hurried to the glass elevator, and once it was moving, Cloud spoke. "He was being sincere the whole time."

"That kind of guilt," Tifa said, "it'll do a lot to a person."

Barret watched the city shrink below them. "Don't matter who he is. We've got a bonified licence to topple, usurp, an' other words that mean 'take-over'. Let's do it by the book, kick in the doors and shoot 'em all dead. End of story."

"If we kill them, we won't know where they're holding Aeris. If we spy on the meeting, we might get information more valuable than killing them."

The glass elevator arrived at the sixty-sixth floor. When they exited the elevator, they stared right into the face of a camera. However, the security guard watching the monitors was coming down from a three day anamoxin binge and was fast asleep in his chair. They walked by without any more notice.

The sleeping security guard was only the latest in a series of lucky strokes they experienced that day. Cloud was amazed at how smoothly things were going for them. The next thing that happened was a blessing in disguise.

Tifa needed to use the washroom.

The bathroom on this floor was easy to find. It was across the hall from the large conference room in the northwest corner. Cloud and Barret stood outside while Tifa pushed open the swinging door, with a picture of a female on it.

She came out just moments later.

"That was fast," Cloud mused.

"Come in here," Tifa whispered.

"Wha!" Barret asked.

Tifa hushed them and pulled them into the girl's washroom. Cloud found it smelled like all bathrooms smell. Never being inside a woman's washroom before, he had almost expected it to smell fresh and clean. He was very wrong.

Tifa inspected the stalls as the men guarded the door. She called them over. She was inside a stall, standing on the seat of the toilet. Reaching up, she grabbed a large grate of a vent entrance. The fan inside was broken and had been taken out, allowing passage.

Cloud stepped into the stall, which smelled particularly foul. "What are you doing?"

"Shh!" Tifa whispered, "Listen!"

Cloud and Barret quieted down for a moment, and rising up out of the silence were voices. They were faint.

"The voices are coming from this vent," Tifa whispered, "I bet it leads to the executive boardroom."

"A vent?" Cloud asked, "are you sure it's safe?"

Tifa hummed quickly, "We'd better get one of us to try it out. Thanks for volunteering, Cloud."

Amused by the quickness of the comment, Cloud agreed. Tifa pushed the grate inside the vent and got off the toilet. Climbing onto it, Cloud jumped and in one fluid motion, lifted himself inside the vent.

"Yeah," he said, "This should support all of us."

Tifa climbed up next, slipping inside the shaft easily enough. Barret stood on the toilet and it was at that moment that the door swung open and he was forced to duck.

Closing the door to the stall quickly, Barret crouched on the toilet, putting his hands on the walls for balance. The door to the stall next to him closed, and he was very careful not to make a sound.

He waited for her to finish, while Cloud and Tifa were in the vent, wondering where he was. After the entrance, the vent widened out to a very large area where all three of them could fit side by side without difficulty.

After the woman was finished in the stall, she left the room. Barret did not hear the sound of faucets, but when the door closed he slowly stood up and looked around the room. It was empty. He scrambled up into the vent and joined the others.

Crawling along in the ventilation system, they saw an opening ahead. Light shone through the grate into squares in the ceiling. Approaching it, they looked down into the conference room. Inside were all the Shinra executives, sitting in chairs, President Shinra and Reeve were talking, arguing.

"Jeez!" Barret whispered, "That's allot a suits!"

"The estimated cost to rebuild Sector 7 is…" Reeve began.


	27. Book 1: Damage Estimates and Mathematics

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 27**

**Damage Estimates and Mathematics**

Five minutes before the remaining members of AVALANCHE stuffed themselves into a ventilation shaft Armon Heidegger was already seated cosily at his seat around the table. He had arrived here twenty minutes early, skipping his second supper (the one right before dinner). He sat at the right hand side of the President, it was a cherished spot and he arrived early just to claim it.

However, the need to go to the washroom was starting to bug him. Surely he could go and come back before anyone else arrived. He left his chair and ran to the washroom, closing the door just before Cloud walked around the corner, going into the women's washroom.

Heidegger quickly did his business and hurried back to the conference room. When he opened the great double doors, he found that Reeve had taken his seat. Yaphet Palmer sat at the left side of the table. Angered, Heidegger would be damned if he sat beside Reeve. He walked beside Palmer and sat down angrily. He said nothing.

The conference room faced the edge of the building, and it overlooked the dark evening sky. The walls, made of a dark brown marble, complimented the crimson carpet. On top of the wooden table, there was a long strip of green light reflected onto the surface by a dome shaped belt.

Reeve had his papers all in order, filled with professional looking papers. Heidegger had nothing to report, and he had brought nothing. Neither did Palmer, as he sat there in his brown-grey business suit. Palmer was half as tall as Heidegger, but just as wide. He was bald save a small tuft of hair right on top of his head.

Andretta Scarlet entered, wearing a dress to suit her name. Her blonde hair was tied back in a bun, and she sat beside Reeve, across from Heidegger.

"So, Heidegger," she said, "how's it?"

"Splendid," Heidegger said, "and yourself?"

"Good."

President Shinra entered the room and the small conversation stopped. "Hello, everyone," he said, walking past Scarlet and Reeve. "Where is Hojo?"

"I haven't seen him, sir," Heidegger said. Shinra looked at Heidegger as he sat down.

"Well," he said, "there's no use waiting for him. Why don't we start the meeting then. Reeve, what are the damage estimates for Sector 7?"

"Considering those factories we already set up and all the investments," Reeve said, looking at the first paper on his pile, "the damage is estimated at approximately 10 Billion Gil."

Shinra began to stroke his chin. Flipping to the last page of his work, Reeve said, "The estimated cost to rebuild Sector 7 is—"

"We're not rebuilding," the president interrupted.

Reeve let go of his neat papers, and they landed imperfectly. It made Heidegger smile. Reeve stopped for a long time, trying to digest this new information.

"What?" asked Reeve.

"We're leaving Sector 7 as is," Shinra said, "and restarting the Neo-Midgar plan."

"Then the Ancients?" Reeve asked.

"The Promised Land will soon be ours," Shinra said, and a pregnant silence filled the room. "Reeve, I want you to raise mako rates fifteen percent in every Sector."

Palmer slammed his hands on the table abruptly, and it made Scarlet jump. Standing on his chair, Palmer began to sing. "Rate hike! Rate hike! Tra la la!"

Such an absurd movement this was, that Heidegger wheeled his chair a few inches away from Palmer.

"And please," Palmer said, turning to President Shinra, "please include our Space Program in the budget?"

"Palmer, sit down!" Shinra said. "This is a meeting, not a zoo. If you cannot conduct yourself during executive meetings I shall have no choice but to discontinue the Space Program altogether!"

Palmer sat down immediately and stayed quiet for the remainder of the meeting.

"Reeve and Scarlet will divide the extra income from the rate increase," Shinra said.

"Sir," Reeve alleged, "if I may. If you raise mako rates, the people will lose confidence."

"I don't foresee that being a problem," Shinra said calmly. "After the devastating attack by such an outspoken anti-Shinra organization, we're going to see a substantial increase in public complacency. A mako rate increase isn't going to be questioned in these turbulent times."

At that moment, the doors creaked open and Professor Hojo walked inside. All voices went silent as the heads in the room all turned to look at Hojo. Still wearing his white lab coat, and his hair loosely tied into a ponytail, he walked, hunched over, into the conference room. He did not sit down.

"Hojo," Shinra said, "how's the girl?"

Hojo ran his middle finger up along his nose, fixing his silver glasses. Looking only at the President, he said, "As a specimen, she is inferior to her mother, as expected with a half-blooded Cetra. I'm still in the process of comparing her to her mother, Ifalna, but for now the difference is eighteen percent."

"How long will the research take?" Shinra asked.

"Probably one hundred and twenty years," Hojo tittered, "I'm assuming it's impossible to finish in our lifetimes, or in the lifetime of the specimen, for that matter, since she is only a half-blood."

Hojo turned towards the doors, but continued to speak.

"I'm thinking of breeding her," he said, "Then, we could create one that could withstand our research for a long time. If the Turks had brought her to us sooner, that might not have been the case. But I'm afraid there are some… hitches, with your Turk organization. The breeding experiment will begin tonight, with the specimen Red XIII. I cannot say when the child is expected, but I can assure you it will outlive us and our grandchildren."

"But what about the Promised Land?" Shinra said, still standing, "won't it hinder our plans?"

"That's what I need to figure out. It might be possible to deduct its location, but it is far too early to tell. The mother is strong... and yet has her weaknesses."

Hojo left the conference room and Shinra shook his head.

"This concludes our meeting," he said, and left immediately.


	28. Book 1: J E N O V A

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 28**

**J-E-N-O-V-A**

Barret watched all the Shinra executives slip out of his reach. One by one they left the conference room, starting with the President. Hurrying after him was Heidegger, followed by Palmer, who exited slowly with less pride than when he entered. Reeve gathered his papers and exited suite.

Barret did not watch this calmly. Every fibre of his being had to be used just to not drop in and kill them all – two of them especially. The first was the President himself, for killing the Planet.

Andretta Scarlet, head of the Shinra Weapons Department, stood up last. As she exited the conference room, she said, "Something stinks."

Barret could relate – inside the ventilation shaft, the stench from the washroom was even more intense. But he readied a rejoin in his mind. '_Yeah,' _he thought,_ 'Somethin' stinks all right. It's _you_. One of these days, I'm gonna shoot your arm off. See how you like it.'_

"They were talking about Aeris, right?" Cloud asked. Barret shrugged, not paying attention to him.

"Probably," Tifa said.

"Then, let's follow 'em." Cloud said, and began to wiggle his way backwards towards the stall.

They all made a safe landing and exited the washroom. Walking up to the double doors of the conference room, Cloud spotted Hojo, who was walking into the stairway leading up to the sixty-seventh floor. They walked quickly but waited for him to clear the stairway before scaling it.

The sixty-seventh floor was divided into several sections. Cloud remembered that Domino had notified them of holding cells on this floor, but he couldn't see them for all the offices for the Department of Peace Preservation and the Weapons Department. Their close proximity, Cloud assumed, was no coincidence.

Hojo continued down hallways, unaware that he was being trailed. The west half of the sixty-seventh floor was filled with crates and cages, each numbered, stamped and filed. Hojo's pursuers hid behind a stack of crates and watched him wander about his dreary laboratory.

"I remember him," Barret whispered. "That Hojo guy, he's the head of the Shinra Science Department. Cloud, don't you know him?"

Cloud thought, and a small headache began to grow. He willed it down, "I've never seen him before," he said, "I've heard of him, but this is the first time I've ever seen him. So, that's what he looks like."

Hojo was now standing beside a glass tube at the other end of the room. Inside the tube, there was a red lion-like creature sitting apathetically.

Hojos assistant entered, also dressed in a white lab coat. This man was young however, and not hunched over like his mentor.

"Is this today's specimen?" the assistant asked.

"Yes," Hojo said, stroking the glass, "and we're starting right away. Raise it to the upper level."

The assistant left, and Hojo leaned his forehead against the glass, his receding hairline not touching at all.

"My precious specimen," he said to the beast. He cooed at the creature, but the beast remained motionless.

Hojo turned and left. Tifa snuck up to the tube and inspected the beast inside.

The beast had fiery red fur, and a long brown mohawk of a mane. It was curled, so Tifa could not see its face. But its tail wagged slowly. At the end, the hair at the tip of the tail seemed almost made of fire, and it glowed brightly, constantly moving. It seemed to just lie there, almost gravely.

"Precious specimen?" she asked, "Is it going to be used for a biological experiment?"

There was a tattoo on the beast's front left leg, and it read 'XIII.' For some reason, the numbered tattoo reminded Cloud of the sick man in Sector 5, the man whose moans haunted him that night. He wondered if somehow, the red beast and sick man were connected.

Cloud felt a small tugging inside of his head and was compelled to look behind him.

In the small niche that they concealed themselves in, they also faced a large brass dome. They could all easily fit inside of it, and it even had a human sized brass door. Above the door, on a metal plaque were the embossed letters:

_J-E-N-O-V-A_

Bright, purple light shone from a small circular window in the brass door.

"Jenova…" Cloud muttered, and walked towards the door. Peering in through the window, his eyes went suddenly wide and he stumbled backwards, falling over. Tifa ran back towards them and cradled Cloud in her arms.

"Jenova!" Cloud shouted, "Sephiroth's… they've brought it here!"

"Cloud, be strong!" said Tifa.

Barret looked at the scene, and Cloud shouted at him, "Did you see it!?"

"See what?" Barret asked.

"It's moving," Cloud said, clutching his head, "still alive!?"

Moving towards the brass door, Barret looked inside.

The chamber was lined with pipes, but in the center was a headless woman. Or at least, she had the form of a woman. She was naked, and several pipes connected her to the side of the chamber. Out of her back extended long fleshy growths that appeared to be wings, but they were connected at the tips by long pipes. Her skin was blue and wrinkled.

But her head was missing. And it appeared it had been ripped off rather violently. There were no pipes coming out of the stump of a neck, it just sat there. Every once in a while, the body would twitch slightly, shaking the tubes and wires. Barret stared for a while, and turned back to Cloud, who, with the help of Tifa, was getting back on his feet.

"Where's its fucking head!" Barret asked. "This whole thing is stupid. This don't have nothin' to do with Aeris, so let's just get her and git the hell outta here!"

Cloud regained his balance, and they all walked past the tube. The beast had not moved, its fiery tail wagged slowly.

There was a small lift ahead, and they entered it. Closing the gate, Cloud pressed the button with the painted 'up' arrow on it. The lift began to ascend and Cloud prepared for battle.

When the lift stopped, they arrived at the sixty-eighth floor. It appeared to be a large, round amphitheatre. At the base, right above where the beast had been kept, there was another tube, as big as a room. Inside of it was a young woman in a pink dress.

"Aeris!" Cloud shouted, and ran towards the tube. Aeris seemed to notice him, and so did Hojo, who had been standing beside the tube.

Tifa and Barret came out of the elevator and stood beside the mercenary.

"Aeris?" Hojo asked, "Oh, is that her name? What do you want?"

Cloud began to walk towards Hojo. "We're taking Aeris back."

"Outsiders," Hojo muttered to himself. Barret heard him.

"Shoulda noticed it earlier, ya—"

He was interrupted by the scientist, "There are so many frivolous things in this world," Hojo said, "and you, my large friend, are among them."

Drawing his sword, Cloud gave Barret a sidelong glance, and the leader of AVALANCHE raised his gun-arm to face Hojo.

"Are you going to kill me?" Hojo asked, feigning surprise, "I don't think you should. The equipment here is extremely delicate. Without me, who could operate it?"

Pausing for a moment, Cloud realized that Hojo was right.

"That's right," said Hojo, sensing Clouds loss of nerve, "I recommend you think things out logically before you make any rash moves."

Turning to his assistant, who was on a catwalk above, Hojo shouted, "Bring in the specimen!"

A small whirring noise was heard from within the tube, and Aeris looked to the centre.

There was a hole in the center of the experimentation tube, and they guessed where it led. They guessed right. The red creature from the sixty-seventh floor was lifted up to the sixty-eighth floor.

Raising its head, it looked around at the scenario. It had two fearsome eyes with which it glared at each of them, letting them know it was dangerous.

Cloud stared right back at the beast. Its eyes gleamed with intelligence, but its attention drifted away from those outside of the tube. It was now focused on Aeris, who had backed up against the glass.

"Cloud!" she cried, "help!"

"What do you think you are doing?" Cloud barked at Hojo.

"Lending a helping hand to an endangered species," Hojo said, "Both of them are on the brink of extinction. By breeding them, I will save their kind. If I don't help, all of these animals will disappear."

"Animal? That's terrible!" said Tifa, "Aeris is a human being!"

"You're gonna pay!" Barret said, and Hojo almost laughed at the cliché.

The red creature began to advance on Aeris, and she ran to the other end of the tube. Before turning, Cloud could have sworn that the creature glanced at Hojo. As if he was trying to draw the scientist's attention.

"Barret," Cloud asked, "can't you do anything?"

"Awright," Barret said, "stand back!" He raised his gun arm and open fired upon the glass.

"Stop!" Hojo shouted, his calm demeanor turned suddenly into desperation.

The bullets hit the glass, but didn't even dent the thick quartz. Barret raised his aim and hit the machinery above. Smoke billowed down into the tube as the machine malfunctioned. Aeris and the beast were lost in the smoke.

"Oh!" Hojo shouted, running towards the glass, "my precious specimens!"

Opening a large door in the tube, Hojo let the smoke out. Cloud could hear the faint coughing of Aeris from within. The smoke cleared and what Hojo saw was not what he expected.

The red beast was not advancing on Aeris. Instead, it leapt out of the smoke and pounced on Hojo, sliding him back into the amphitheatre.

Hojo, screaming for mercy, was subject to the gnashing jaws of the beast. Cloud ran inside the tube and looked for Aeris. He batted his arms, trying to clear the smoke. When he found Aeris, who appeared first as a blurry pink figure, lying in the mist, he put his sword away and helped her up.

She stood up and looked at him. "You came for me," she said, "thank you."

She threw her arms around him, and for the first time in his life, Cloud felt like a hero.

The whirring sound of the lift was louder within the tube, and Cloud looked at the lift, which was on the descent once more.

Placing his hand on Aeris', he led her away from the lift, slowly backing out of the tube.

The beast on Hojo had stopped attacked and was just sitting on the scientist, too heavy to let Hojo get away. Tifa and Barret kept their distance from that ordeal, and rushed to Aeris as soon as they emerged from the smoke.

Tifa noticed Cloud's worried expression. "Cloud, what's wrong?"

"The elevator is moving," was his reply.

Hojo began to laugh, and the red beast got off of him. Hojo sat up, blood dripping down onto his lab coat.

"This is no ordinary specimen – this is a very ferocious specimen!" Turning once more to his assistant, Hojo shouted, "Bring up HO512!"

There was a moment of silence, presumably as Hojo's "ferocious specimen" was being loaded on the lift below. The moment lasted too long, and finally it was broken by a new voice coming from behind Hojo.

"It's rather strong," a deep, discerning voice echoed about the amphitheatre, "I will do what I can to help you."

Cloud turned behind him, looking for the source of the voice. He saw no one, only Hojo and the beast, who were both looking at him.

'_Am I having an episode again?'_ Cloud asked, _'Have I finally gone insane?'_

Tifa caught on quicker than Cloud, "It talked!"

The jaws on the beast moved to the words coming out of its muzzle, "I'll talk as much as you want later, miss."

The voice was deep and proper. Surely none of them had seen anything like it. In its eyes as well, a look of intelligence as it gave each of them a fleeting look.

Another silent moment; not even Hojo moved. They all stared at the beast.

The elevator began it's ascent.

Hojo scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could out of the room. Cloud turned back towards the tube and watched the smoke begin to clear. He nodded, accepting the beast's help. "We'll take care of that monster. Tifa, I need you to take Aeris somewhere safe."

Tifa began to walk towards a rope leading to the catwalk, but Aeris hesitated. She looked at the beast. "What's your name?"

The beast replied, "Hojo has named me Red XIII. A name with no meaning whatsoever to me. Call me whatever you wish."

"Red XIII will be fine," Cloud said, "thank you for your help."

HO512 was a synthesis of two creatures. One of those creatures was the same species as Don Corneo's Apps. The second creature was the bagnagrana, a deadly creature from the marshes outside of Midgar. Hojo had interbred the two, eighteen years ago. Moreover, the creature had been growing and living in a crate on Floor 67. It was very, very irate.

When it first emerged, Barret open fired and stopped only when he felt too weak to continue. Cloud closed his eyes and summoned a bolt of lightning which hit the creature head-on. HO512 seemed unaffected by the attacks so far.

Red XIII ran towards HO512 with incredible speed. He almost looked like a great fireball rushing towards the experiment. When he hit, he seemed to pass right through, and blood splattered all along the glass wall. The creature screamed and grabbed at the beast, but he had already returned to the outside of the tube. Cloud reached his soul into his other materia and for the first time since his arrival in Midgar. Cloud summoned ice.

It felt like a cool wind washing over him, the heat of the battle was temporarily suspended. He concentrated and focused the spell on HO512. Magical embers burst from HO512's head, and the experiment shivered in pain as ice formed quickly around the idle areas of his body. Opening his circular, sharp toothed mouth, he screamed out and the party could see his breath. The glass of the tube frosted over briefly, but Cloud felt weak and the spell stopped. The ice remained, but melted fast against HO512's temperate, leathery skin. The beast snapped the icicles off it's elbows and roared ferociously, when suddenly a terrible fire erupted between it's legs.

Tifa could summon fire, Cloud knew, but she was supposed to be hiding with Aeris. Another explosion of fire sent HO512 stumbling back, still clutching to the icicles it had broken off of itself.

Red XIII leapt again on HO512, and Cloud noticed that in the headdress that the red beast wore, there was a green stone glowing, as the flames burned his emeny's flesh.

Barret seemed surprised as well; Red XIII gnashed at HO512's neck until the ferocious specimen grabbed the beast with his giant three-clawed hand.

Red XIII was in the enemy's clutches, and HO512 threw the beast through the frosted glass wall of the tube. A chunk of glass stabbed itself into Red XIII's right eye, puncturing the eyeball and cutting his face. The beast roared in pain and immediately retaliated with another fire spell mid-air

HO512, who was emitting smoke from his burning flesh, leapt through the glass before Red XIII had a chance to reach the ground. Shards flew towards Cloud and Barret. In a flash, Cloud's sword was out and blocking the spray, and Barret's thick skin prevented any cuts.

Red XIII landed and rolled into the first row of seating. The pain in his left eye was unendurable! With no thumbs to speak of, Red XIII clawed at his face, trying in vain to get the chunk of glass dislodged from his scarring socket. The stabbing, swelling, throbbing agony was amplified when the beast saw his own blood spraying around his paws. He had to get it out! Red XIII began slamming his head against the floor trying to scrape the glass out. Each hit more painful than the last.

And suddenly, a wave of elation washed over him. The pain was gone. Red XIII sensed that this spell was coming from above him, and he looked up.

Aeris had emerged from her hiding spot, and she stood on the catwalk above them. She held her staff in her hands, and one of many green stones was glowing. "Thank you, miss!"

Skin scabbed and grew to fit the glass chunk in his face, and infection was nipped in the bud. However, the cure spell could not rid the glass from Red XIII's face, so the magic decided instead to remove Red XIII's right eyeball, it shriveled away from the glass and the socket was left emty.

With his remaining eye, Red XIII looked back at the battle.

Cloud stabbed into HO512's chest with his sword, and it hit the bone. The creature grabbed the mercenary with its three-fingered claws and threw him across the Amphitheatre. Cloud landed with a thud a few rows above Red XIII. His sword was still lodged inside the creature, along with his materia.

Barret's firing slowed. His bullets had done minimal damage to HO512. The only one capable of dodging its attacks was Red XIII, who had seemed to do so effortlessly. Running back at the creature, Red XIII anticipated its swinging arm and leapt right on it. He ran up the long arm and used the shard of glass to stab HO512 in the face. The glass was now lodged in HO512's jaw hunge, and when Red XIII pulled back, the glass came free from both of them and bounced of the specimen's enormous shoulder, and down to the steel.

HO512's angry bellows were distorted with a broken jaw, and he grappled at Red XIII. Barret took the opportunity to fire into the creature's open mouth, and did considerably more damage. The ferocious beast ran out of the tube and clawed at Barret with one hand, while still trying to grab Red XIII with the other.

Cloud, whose sword and material were wedged between HO512's ribs, felt helpless.

"Cloud!" Aeris called from the catwalk, "You can box!"

Like a camera's flash, the memory of Derith's last conscious moment shone on Cloud, and he remembered. He wasn't helpless; he was never helpless. He had someone watching over him, warning him, healing him, giving him strength. He bared his fists and leapt towards HO512, who picked up a seating bench and threw it at Barret.

Barret ducked at the bench flew harmlessly over his head, and continued to fire at HO512. Cloud was upon the ferocious specimen, and delivered a strong slug to the side of its head.

HO512 went down. Wailing one final time, the creature landed on Cloud's sword, pushing it through the bone and further into his body. Cloud was knocked off the creature, but Red XIII had dug his claws into the burned flesh. The beast roared and scratched at HO512, simultaneously casting fireballs that engulfed the creatures' head until it finally went limp.

Cloud got up and limped towards it as Tifa and Aeris climbed down from the catwalk. He needed Barret's help to roll it over, and Cloud pulled the sword from the corpse. It twitched as Cloud's moving blade provoked the nerve endings inside its skin.

"Aeris," he asked, "are you all right?"

"She seems fine," Tifa announced, but was careful to stand between Red XIII and Aeris. Giving the beast a short glare, she added, "in many ways."

"Hey!" Red XIII said in defense, "I have a right to choose as well. I don't like two legged things." The beast turned to Aeris, "I'm sorry for what happened, I was merely acting to throw Hojo off guard."

Aeris smiled. She knew. "You're forgiven, Red XIII."

Barret, who had kicked HO512's corpse in the head, approached the group. "What are you?"

"That," Red XIII replied, "is an informed question. But difficult to answer. I am what you see." Noticing that Hojo was gone, he said, "there will be time for question later. First, we must get out of here… I do not know the way."

"There should be an elevator along that wall," Cloud gestured, "come on!"


	29. Book 1: Cetra

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 30**

**Cetra**

They waited at the doors for the glass elevator to arrive. Cloud glanced at Tifa and Barret, glad they had all made it out of this ordeal alive. Aeris was with them, and they had freed another of Hojo's victims. Escape was the only thing left to do. Cloud palmed Domino's keycard. It would take them right to the lobby. If they were lucky, Hojo would be notifying the others now – there wouldn't be guards to fight through for ten minutes. That might be enough time. Cloud laughed at himself as thoughts of luck danced through his mind.

The five of them cautiously fit inside the glass elevator. Red XIII took up the space of two people, but there was plenty of room to spare. The beast looked out of the glass and down over Shinra's metropolis. He had never seen the big city before, and it was strangely exciting for him. If he hadn't been in such a big hurry, he would have stayed longer to drink it all in.

The door stayed open for a moment and Cloud walked to the glass podium. There was the slot for his keycard, but he did not need that anymore. There was a button that was labelled "LOBBY." And he was about to push it when someone walked in behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

Turning around, Cloud found that the tapper was inches away from his face. The man had dark skin and frowned at Cloud through his sunglasses. Somewhat startled by the sudden appearance of the dark man, Cloud choked on, "What do you want?"

The man cocked his head, struggling with the question. He was no good with words. After fixing his tie, he pointed upwards and said, "Would you press 'up', please?"

"This elevator doesn't go up," Cloud said. It was then that he recognized the colour of the man's suit. It was a dark blue. The same as Reno's, who had taken a nasty spill off of the pillar. This man was a Turk.

"Yes, it does," came a voice from behind Rude. Tseng stepped into the elevator holding a keycard up for all to see. The elevator door closed behind him and he walked up to the podium, inserting his card. The elevator began to go up. In his hands, he held numerous chains and cuffs.

"There is a stop at the sixty-ninth floor," Tseng explained.

"Turks," Cloud muttered. _'I knew it was too easy. Luck is a fool's saviour after all.'_

Tseng threw a pair of cuffs to Rude, who grabbed Cloud and spun him around. Cloud's arms were pulled violently behind him and Rude cuffed them together. Tseng walked close to Cloud. "It must have been a real thrill for you," the leader of the Turks breathed into Cloud's face. Cloud breathed right back, but Tseng was unmoved, "Did you enjoy it?"

Cloud felt utterly powerless, but he kept still, close to Tseng's calculating face. Rude was cuffing Tifa now, but Cloud kept her in his peripheral, his eyes still locked on Tseng's.

"I'm not getting no damn chains 'round my arms!" Barret roared.

"It's over, Barret," Cloud said calmly, and Tseng broke their stare, satisfied with this victory, "It's over, for now."

"They're jes' the damn Turks!" Barret retorted, "You see how fast we took out Reno?"

"These ones aren't Reno," Cloud sighed, "We'll do what they say for now."

"Aww hell, I could take this one out right—"

Quicker than a flash and Rude was on Barret, his fist smacking Barret's face so quickly it almost looked like it went right through it. Barret stumbled back against the glass of the elevator and slumped to the ground.

Rude rolled over the unconscious Barret. The cuffs could not fit around Barret's gun-arm. Barret's abnormal giantism also made his wrists very wide; cuffs would never do the job. Rude tied Barret's arms with chains and left him on the ground. He then bound Red XIII's paws with chained cuffs.

Aeris and Tseng had walked towards each other and were looking at each other in silence. She looked into his eyes and said simply, "Please."

Tseng paused for a moment, holding the last pair of cuffs. He looked down at the silver hoops in his hands, and then at her hands. He sighed, "I'm sorry, Aeris." The silver cuffs bound her hands, but Tseng applied them gently.

Rude had bound their feet as well before the elevator ride was over. Barret had been given a small dose of glyphanide to wake him, and he said nothing after he was stirred. The door opened and they entered the sixty-ninth floor. Exiting the elevator, they passed the desk of President Shinra's personal secretary, who buzzed the President.

"Mr. President?" she called into the intercom, "they've been captured and are on their way. Hojo's beast is with them as well."

'_We had no lucky strokes.'_ The realization hit Cloud like an errant train, _'They let us get up here. HO512 was in place when we saved Aeris. The Turks were ready and waiting for us.'_

Rude began to push Cloud up the stairs, which Cloud did not like at all, and he struggled a bit. Barret struggled as well, and the Turks concentrated on getting them up the stairs. Tifa, Aeris and Red XIII were more complacent. When they got to the top of the staircase, Tseng took hold of Aeris' upper arm, carefully.

She followed him back down the stairs and Cloud shouted, "Where are you taking Aeris?"

"Somewhere safe," echoed a response. Looking towards the window, Cloud saw President Shinra seated at his desk. It was a long walk from the stairs to his desk, and one that seemed all the longer, when Cloud was in chains. They moved along the reflective floor, passing ivory pillars and nearing the other end of the building, where Shinra sat quietly, waiting for them. Beyond him, the window facing the helipad and the ruins of Sector 7.

Tseng came back up the staircase and escorted them the rest of the way. They arrived at the edge of Shinra's desk. Shinra sat there, bloated and smoking a cigar, as if waiting for a question. With so many to ask, Cloud only spat out one.

"Who is Aeris?"

Shinra raised a single eyebrow at the question; it certainly wasn't one that he expected. Not the usual 'What-are-you-going-to-do-to-her/us/the Planet' question, or an order to stop whatever atrocity he was committing at that particular moment. He puffed on his cigar, and as he exhaled he explained. "Aeris is the last surviving Ancient." Now would be a good time to stand up and tower over them in his might. He walked around his desk to meet them personally, and found that the dark skinned one towered over him. Tsk, pity, and he had looked so small when they had met the other day in Sector 5. What a lark that had been, but none of them had been killed. No matter, they would die soon.

"They called themselves the Cetra," Shinra added as he paced, "and they lived thousands of years ago. Now, they are just a forgotten page in history."

"Cetra?" Red XIII asked, "That girl is a survivor of the Cetra?"

Shinra continued, "Cetra, or the Ancients will show us the way to the 'Promised Land.' I'm expecting a lot out of her"

"The Promised Land?" Red XIII asked, "Isn't that just a legend?"

Shinra walked up to Red XIII and said, "Even so, it's just too appealing to not to pursue! It is said that the Promised Land is very fertile. If the land is fertile—"

"Then there's gotta be mako!" Barret shouted, struggling with his chains.

"Exactly," Shinra smiled, and reached behind him to tap his cigar on his ashtray. He spoke as if he was having a casual conversation around the coffee table, "the abundant mako will just come out on its own, and we'll be there to harness it. That is where Neo-Midgar will be built. Shinra's new glory." He turned and smiled at the large one.

Barret spat on Shinra's crimson suit. "Fuck you!" he said, "quit dreamin!"

"All it takes for your dreams to come true is money and science. And I have both."

Shinra plucked a handkerchief off of his desk and gently wiped Barret's spit off of his suit.

"This concludes our meeting."

Cloud, Tifa and Red XIII turned and were pushed by Tseng out of the President's way. Barret stayed and shouted, "Hold it! I got a lot I wanna say to you!"

Rude grabbed Barret and pushed him backwards. Barret shouted at the President, "yer killin the Planet! Neo-Midgar will be the death of us all, how're ya gonna use money when yer dead, ya jackass!"

"If you need anything else," Shinra called, his voice echoing among the ivory pillars, "talk to my secretary."

* * *

Hojo was in the dark of floor sixty-eight. All of the lights were out save a few backups, and that was how Shinra found him, sitting in the black amphitheatre with his sleeves rolled up.

"Hojo, there you are," Shinra said, "I called you up to my office twenty minutes ago. What the hell are you—"

Hojo's right arm was stretched in front of him, wrapped near the shoulder with a tourniquet. He held a large needle with his left hand, and he injected himself with something.

"Just my medication, president," Hojo said calmly. When he spoke he spoke slowly, taking his time with his words. Combined with the darkness of the floor it made the president very wary. "Working with so much mako has an adverse effect on my," Hojo searched for the right word, "life source."

The scientist snickered and threw the needle into the darkness. His veins were popping right out of his arm and he smiled at the president.

"All better," he sneered too slowly.

"There are claw marks on the walls here," Shinra noted.

"Yes, Cloud and his friends killed HO512," Hojo replied, rolling his sleeve back down.

"HO512?"

"An experiment, Mr. President, a dangerous one. I would watch out for those you have captive, I would have put them out of their misery long ago."

"Their executions will be public," Shinra said, "But that is of no concern to you. The Cetra—"

Hojo clutched his hand suddenly, and he held on to it as if it was trying to escape.

"Is everything all right?" Shinra asked.

"Just a side effect of the medication, Cathal," Hojo snickered, "I am suffering from mild mutation but it is a much better alternative than having my brain invaded by the dregs of souls, don't you agree?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shinra said.

"And you never will, Cathal," Hojo laughed, "You were saying?"

"Ah yes. The Cetra girl is below in the prison. You can get her out when you wish. What should we do with the beast?"

"Destroy the beast," Hojo said, "Its longevity is useless if it is unwilling to mate. You'll get to the Promised Land, President. And I will be the one to take you there."

Hojo laughed again. Silence fell.

"Hojo… what is mako?"

Hojo cackled and turned away, and Shinra left him then.

* * *

When President Shinra arrived at the top of the staircase and began his long walk towards his desk, he noticed a figure standing beside his chair, facing the window. He recognized the long white coat and unmistakable hair.

"Rufus." Shinra wasn't so much addressing him as announcing him – introducing him to the room. His voice echoed off the pillars and Rufus turned away from the window.

"Hello, old man," Rufus said, running a hand through his orange hair. Shinra hair.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Already the small-talk was grating. "Is there a situation in Junon?"

Rufus clenched his jaw. "No, everything in Junon is fine."

"Would you like a cigar?"

"I don't smoke."

"Pity."

"It's been a while," Rufus said.

Shinra hummed. "It has."

At the top of the tower, Midgar's din was drowned out by a wind. Outside the wall of glass, on the helipad, was a helicopter branded with the Shinra logo – a red diamond overtop a white square. Rufus' panther paced in front of it, watching Shinra through the glass wall.

"You know," Shinra began, "it's probably unsafe for the two of us to be in the same place – terrorists, and all that."

"The Turks informed me of their capture. To my knowledge, they are no longer a threat. Besides, this is worth the risk."

"Don't underestimate the danger," Shinra said. "I'll say it again, and plainly. The President and the Vice President being together is an incredible security risk. If we die, the company is finished."

"I don't think that's going to happen. Even from my helicopter I saw half the MPs in Midgar guarding the building entrance. AVALANCHE is locked up, they weren't carrying explosives, nothing can get in or out. We're perfectly safe."

There was an antagonistic quality to his voice that Shinra found alarming. He had been used to Rufus' indignation, but this was something entirely new. "What's on your mind, son?"

"I reviewed the list of refugees and survivors from the Sector 7 attack. Rhonda isn't on it."

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Rhonda."

Shinra could sense that Rufus was upset, but he earnestly added, "I'll need a last name."

"She didn't have a last name, she was a slumling."

"The list of refugees doesn't include slumlings, if they're not registered –"

"She lived on the plate, she was registered. You... you _know_ her! She was the main receptionist in this building. She did all the recordings for the computer's automated messages!"

"Don't get hot. I can't remember every receptionist that works in this building, I have a hard enough time keeping track of department heads. Unless her name started with Sephiroth or ended with Shinra, I'm not going to remember her."

Rufus' hand curled into a fist. "Is that so?"

"Something is obviously wrong, and I'm clearly missing some vital information. Who is this person?"

Rufus waited a moment, considering. "Rhonda. My fiancé."

Shinra's guilt thudded dull and distant somewhere inside of him, where he couldn't reach. He thought about grabbing for it, and holding that feeling. He gave up. "I'm sorry."

Rufus almost smiled, watching his father's face. "Don't trouble yourself, she wasn't yet legally of Shinra name. I suppose she doesn't matter. Well, all that remains to be seen is the death of AVALANCHE. I would do it myself, if you'd let me. But I suppose being in the same building as you is a risk, as you said."

Shinra nodded, saying nothing.

"There's one more thing," Rufus trailed a finger along Shinra's desk. "It seems strange to me that AVALANCHE would choose to destroy Sector 7, seeing as their hideout was directly underneath it."

The guilt inside Shinra turned to panic, and that was a much easier emotion to grasp. "That is strange."

"The cleanliness of the explosion almost makes it look like a planned demolition instead of a crude bombing."

Shinra puffed on his cigar. "One of the terrorists obtained Shinra codes, and they brought down the pillar using the demolition mainframe."

Their faces were very close now. Neither had blinked for a while.

"That's quite likely," Rufus said. "After all, they're a capable band of insurgents. I'm sure that you're right."

"It would be foolish to think otherwise."

They both hummed as if to advertise their sincerity. Rufus swept a lock of orange hair out of his eyes. "Then I expect their execution will be equal in capability. I wouldn't expect anything less of Shinra Inc."

"My thoughts exactly. That will be all, Rufus."

The panther leapt into the helicopter as Rufus surged across the windy helipad. His white coat was tossed behind him, cape-like and garish. Shinra put out his cigar and sat in the chintz chair, sighing. This was not his night.


	30. OnlineOnly: Cell Talk

Author's Note: In the published version, this chapter is simply tacked on to the end of the last chapter, so this does not get a number anymore.

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Cell Talk**

Pearlescent ivory walls met marble floor, rounded at the edges. The walls were rounded at the top of the small holding cell as well, meeting a solid square of fluorescent light, bleaching the very air around Cloud. Tifa shared a cell with him, she sat on the single cot at the east wall. "Even the cells are extravagant," Cloud said coyly.

The door was a white metal – it had hissed when it slid shut. He couldn't see out – better yet, no one could see in.

He scanned the ceiling for cameras – the bright light made it hard to see. Cloud always hated bright lights. That's why he liked Midgar. It was never fully dark, but it was never too bright. Always dim. Always somewhere in the middle.

His mako eyes adjusted to the light and he saw no hidden lenses around the edges. He hurried to the ventilation grate in the wall.

It was too small to even fit an arm through, but everything else was solid. It was the only thing he could do. Tifa eyed him carefully as he grappled at the small vent. The grate was fused into the wall – the slits were too thin for his fingers. He picked at it for a while.

Time passed. He gave up and sat on the floor against the wall. Tifa lay on the cot. An hour passed.

"Can we get out?" Tifa asked.

"The vent is a no-go. The door looks pretty sturdy..." He noticed the starving look in her eyes. "Leave it to me."

A sound drifted through the grate beside him.

"Cloud," came a voice, "are you there?"

It was Aeris' voice, and Tifa sat up in surprise. Cloud leaned in. "Aeris?" he asked, "are you safe? Where are you?"

"I'm in the cell next to you. I'm safe," she said, "I knew that you would come for me."

"I'm your bodyguard, right?" Cloud replied, flattering his ego. Looking through the hole again, he could see light shining a metre away. He thought he could make out her face on the other side. He was happy to see it.

He was less happy to realize that the walls were a metre thick.

Aeris' voice drifted into the cell again. "The deal was for one date, right?"

Cloud's hand twitched involuntarily. He wasn't sure how to react to that. While he grappled with his thoughts, Tifa sat up and swung her legs over the side of the cot. "Oh," she said, "I get it."

"Tifa!" Aeris shouted, "You're there too?"

"I don't mean to interrupt," Tifa snarled, "You two go ahead, just pretend I'm not here."

There was a long, pregnant pause. Cloud averted his eyes from Tifa's motionless fuming. He figured that it would be unwise to continue talking – with either of them. As the seconds dragged, he found it harder to believe that Tifa was jealous. She couldn't be, this was _Tifa_, after all. The mayor's daughter.

"You know Aeris, I have a question." Tifa said after a while. She had calmed down some and grew serious, now sitting by the vent. "Does the Promised Land really exist?"

Aeris replied, "I don't know. All I know is, the Cetra were born from the Planet, speak with the Planet and unlock the Planet. And then, The Cetra will return to the Promised Land. A land that promises supreme happiness."

Tifa gave her a beat before asking "what does that mean?"

"More than words, to tell you the truth, I don't even know. It's just something I seem to know. Like how to use magic. How do you know how to use magic?"

"I don't know," Tifa said, "it happened five years ago."

"Five years ago," Cloud brooded forlornly.

"I didn't know how to use magic before then. But somehow, since then, I can use this materia of mine. I've never tried to use any other materia."

"It's always difficult," Cloud said, "adjusting to a new spell. But if you know the basics of magic use, then you should be able to learn all spells."

"Hmm." Tifa said.

Cloud sat in the silence for a while, trying to recall just what Aeris had said, for it had been nagging at him. When he remembered, he leaned into the vent. "Aeris, something you said had been nagging at me. 'Speak with the Planet.' What does that mean?"

Tifa returned to the cot, "What does the Planet say?"

Aeris took a moment before replying, "It's full of people," she said, "and it's noisy. That's why I can't make out what it's saying."

"You hear it now?" Cloud asked.

"I only heard it," she replied, "at the church in the slums. Mother said Midgar was no longer safe. My real mother, that is. Someday I'll get out of Midgar. Speak with the Planet and find my Promised Land. That's what my mother said. I thought I would stop hearing her voice as I grew up, but I do. I still do."

* * *

"Aeris is an Ancient," Barret started. He and Red XIII were together in the cell next to Cloud and Tifa. Red XIII was curled up on the floor and Barret sat on the cot, his back leaned against the white walls. Everything in the Shinra tower was white and crimson, even the jail cells. It made him sick, and he had been raving about it. Red XIII did not appear to be listening to Barret. Barret was the only one who had been left chained up, his gun arm too dangerous to the pearl and ivory walls.

"Aeris is an Ancient," he said, "and the Ancients called themselves the Cetra. The Ancients know where the Promised Land is and Shinra is searching for that land. I don't know if it really exists, I've only heard stories bout it. Shinra believes that it's full of Mako energy. Which means, if he gets there, he's gonna suck up all the energy. The land'll wither away. The Planet's gonna get weaker."

Feeling somewhat empowered by his speech, Barret stood quickly.

"Well I won't have it!" he said, "I'm recruitin' new members! I won't let AVALANCHE die. Me, Tifa, Cloud, and Aeris too!"

Turning to the beast, Barret asked, "what about you?"

Red XIII said nothing. After a while, Barret sat back down on his cot and muttered, "yer so damned boring."

Red XIII got up, stretched and laid back down. After a long silence, he said a single word.

"Grandpa…"

"Grandpa?" Barret laughed, "Grandpa." He chortled some more. Red XIII raised his head and looked at Barret.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Barret shook his head, "Nothin… ha ha!"

The lights in the cells dimmed to nearly nothing. Barret looked up at the ceiling and could see his own reflection in the concave plastic. "Gotta be late in the night, now."

Red XIII put his head back down. Aeris had taken the glass out of his eye, and had scabbed the gash so it would stop bleeding. But his right eye was useless now, sealed shut by the skin and fur around it. He would have a scar there forever, reminding him of the time he met AVALANCHE.

"Let's just get some sleep," Red XIII said, and closed his left eye.

* * *

Tifa lay on the cot, staring at the white ceilings. She saw an indistinct, warped reflection of herself. She thought it made her look fat. She turned away from the ceiling and looked at Cloud, a navy blue and purple blotch on an eerily white backdrop. He sat on the floor beside the grate, fast asleep.

Tifa looked at his eyelids, between the straggly spikes of his yellow hair. When they were closed, he seemed much more serene, so much more real, when his eyes did not glow. He looked like he did as a child, however long ago that had been. Tifa glanced back up at the ceiling, at her distorted, bloated belly. She inhaled deeply

Cloud's eyes fluttered open for a moment, and closed again.

"Can't sleeop?" he muttered, drifting back. She didn't answer him, she knew in a moment he would return to his slumber. He lay down on the floor, resting his yellow hair on the cold white metal of the cell. Tifa didn't want to wake him, not if it was their last night alive.

'_Lie with him,'_ she shrugged off the idea, opting instead to close her eyes and picture it. And soon she felt her consciousness slipping as well, and succumbed to it.


	31. Book 1: Trail of Blood

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 30**

**Trail of Blood**

When Cloud awoke, he was not in the cozy bed of his childhood, nor the bed at Aeris' house. He wasn't even in the chair at Tifa's bar. He was on the hard metal floor, in a cell on the sixty-seventh floor of the Shinra Headquarters. His sleep had not been kind to him. He sat up and the cell seemed even colder than when he had gone to sleep. Turning to face the wall, he rubbed his eyes open.

Tifa slept on the cot at the far side of the room. Cloud watched her for a while, and tried to recall their childhood. He remembered their promise, seven years ago. The death of Tifa's father. Everything else seemed a haze, things coming to him only in dreams, or episodes. _'What's wrong with me?'_

Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. In the silence, he obeyed his peripheral and glanced over at the cell door.

It had slid all the way open.

His eyes darted back to the motionless figure on the cot. He gazed at her back, watching her ribcage slowly expanding and contracting, making sure his eyes weren't tricking himself. She was breathing. She was still fully clothed. He exhaled slowly and silently. He rose to his feet, his eyes back on the door.

Every step towards the open doorway was calculated and soft. Cloud flattened himself against the wall beside the open doorway, slowly turning his head to look outside.

To the east, the hallway ended after a few more cell doors – all the others were closed. He twisted his head to look to the west. More closed doors, and then the hallway turned southwards. Cloud saw a bloody corpse slumped in the corner.

He drew his head back into the cell. Tifa still slept peacefully. His ears picked up nothing but the din of fluorescent lights outside. He steeled himself and moved into the hallway.

A bloody trail lead from the guard down the southward corridor and out of the holding bay. Cloud knelt down to inspect the body. The blue fabric of the guards uniform was dyed purple from the blood. He had been sliced in half at the waist – it was a neat cut, a single blow. Cloud hadn't seen a wound that clean in years. The guard had been propped up on himself – the top half rested on the bloody legs. His head leaned back against the corner of the hallway, his mouth slack, his eyes rolled back in his head so far that Cloud could only see the whites. It was unnerving, the all-white eyes with the rills of red veins, it reminded him of the milky-eyed sick man from Sector 5. It reminded him of his dead mother's face.

He was not grateful for the sudden return of that memory.

Cloud forced his gaze down to the guard's lower half – somewhat covered by the blood and entrails of the upper half. The keys to the cells were underneath a fleshy pink organ. Cloud nudged the sack aside and grabbed the ring of keycards. He pulled them loose and returned silently to his cell.

When he walked inside, Tifa awoke with a start and sat up. She took a few seconds to assess the situation – the open door, Cloud holding keys, his blood-covered hand. She almost smiled, "I knew you could do it."

Cloud shook his head, and spoke softly. "Wasn't me. Let's get the others and go. Now."

She stood up and he handed her a few keycards. They entered the hallway and Tifa gasped when she saw the disembowelled guard and the lake of blood in the corner. Cloud did not hesitate before trying to open the next cell.

After a few tries, the door hissed and slid into the wall. Cloud sighed with relief when he saw the buster sword propped against a wall, next to a small pile of materia crystals. He walked inside, finding their armour on the cot. He was disheartened when he did not find Aeris' staff or any of her materia.

By the time Cloud had finished equipping himself, Tifa had opened the other cells, and the party was filing out quietly into the hallway, still bewildered.

All through the air there was an eerie hollowness, as if all of the life had been sucked out of it. Cloud handed Tifa her materia subtly, and she clipped it to her belt away from the main group.

"The hell's goin' on!?" Barret shouted upon seeing the body.

"The force behind this blow is unimaginable," Red XIII murmured calmly. "No human could have done this." Cloud had a suspicion that he was right. But he had a pretty good idea of what could have.

Looking around the corner, there was another body – another Shinra guard. They moved to the corpse. This one had also been killed with a blade, a long slice right down the middle.

"Cloud," Aeris said. "How did you get out?"

"My cell was just open," Cloud replied. "Maybe the guards were trying to get our help. Maybe it was a malfunction. Maybe there's a rogue SOLDIER who set us free."

Barret snorted, "Goddamn rogue SOLDIERs all over the place. Shinra must have one shitty-ass pension plan."

Aeris was gazing at another body a few metres away. "I don't think whoever did this had any intention of helping us."

"I know," Cloud said. "Everyone here is dead. This wasn't a battle... it was a massacre."

The air was eerily quiet. They moved to the next body, stabbed through eloquently. They were outside of the holding bay now, they were surrounded by the offices of the sixty-seventh floor. Blood had been dashed over the walls.

Following the line of bodies, they found themselves nearing Jenova's chamber, and Cloud feared to approach it.

The door was open, and liquid mako had been spilled onto the ground.

The door wasn't just open; it had been ripped completely off. Parts of the brass dome around the door were now large brass chunks on the floor. Cloud moved to the hole in the dome, afraid of what was behind it. Afraid that Jenova was alive or worse, awake. His hands were ready to grab his sword should anything be waiting for him inside.

He peered around the brass dome and saw wires. They hung from the ceiling and walls, dripping mako down into the pool at the bottom of the dome. There was also blood, splattered over the round white walls of the dome's insides. Jenova was gone.

"Did it get away?" Cloud asked, "Jenova?"

Aeris reached behind her back and slowly began to draw her staff. Cloud looked behind Aeris. The staff materialized out of the air. One of the materia inside of the staff glowed softly. A cloaking spell, he surmised – that's why it hadn't been confiscated with everything else. She drew the staff on front of her and held it at the ready.

_'Smart girl,'_ he thought, and led them past Jenova's ruptured tank.

There was a large pool of blood from right underneath Jenova's former position. From the pool, there was a long trail of blood leading out of the dome and towards the specimen shaft, Hojo's glass lift for specimens, below the amphitheatre. The way up had been dented and damaged by HO512, but Cloud saw fresh blood dripping from above. He turned to the party and pointed upwards.

They crammed into the personnel lift and ascended to the sixty-eighth floor. They entered the experimentation amphitheatre. Claw marks covered the walls from the battle with HO512, but there was no sign of a new struggle.

Jenova's trail of blood continued from the experiment chamber, over the broken glass and towards the staircase.

They were following her up, to the top floor. They walked cautiously – it was too silent to move quickly. Over the course of an hour, the Shinra building had been turned from a lively working place into a tomb. Bodies lay scattered about, each horrifically maimed and dismembered. The bright red of blood drooled along the crevices and corners, percolating into the walls. The sounds of their footsteps were the loudest thing they could hear, and the unfamiliar thud of Red XIII's paws made Cloud edgy.

They climbed the stairs to the sixty-ninth floor, the only thing separating them from President Shinra was a short staircase and a very long walk. President Shinra's personal secretary's head lay on the ground and wobbled as they walked past.

The trail of blood led up the staircase. Cloud made sure his sword was ready, for this was the end of their journey. In that moment he decided that he could not take the silence any longer. He unsheathed his sword and charged up the staircase, arriving on the top floor of Shinra's Headquarters. The team followed.

A dozen ivory pillars lined the walls of the great, empty room. There was no more need to be silent. There were no more obstacles in his path. Cloud charged at the desk across the room. The pillars rushed past him on either side. His boots slammed against the pearl floors. Shinra did not move from his chair behind the desk.

The closer Cloud came to Shinra, the more he realized something was wrong with the President. Shinra was slumped over his desk, his hands outstretched.

Barret pushed past Cloud and ran behind Shinra. He examined the slumped figure.

"Dead," Barret said almost sombrely, "President Shinra is dead."

Cloud and Tifa, Barret's companions against Shinra from the start, moved towards the desk. Cloud didn't want to look at the long sword protruding from Shinra's lifeless body, but he had to. He attempted to disbelieve its existence. But he knew as soon as he saw it, that the sword belonged to **him**.

"Then this sword must be Sephiroth's," Tifa said, "…Sephiroth is alive?"

Cloud struggled to find the words, "Looks like it," he uttered, "only Sephiroth can use this sword."

Tifa and Cloud exchanged frightened looks in a hurried moment of silence.

"Who cares who did it!" Barret shouted, "This is the end of the Shinra!"

Cloud suddenly snapped to attention, something else moved in the room. Someone was running towards the staircase. He leapt over the desk and caught the man, spinning him around.

"Palmer!" Cloud shouted.

"P- p-p-please don't kill me!" Palmer squealed. Cloud's face was cold, but not angry.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Se… Sephiroth. Sephiroth came."

"Did you see him?"

Palmer almost passed out from fear, but Cloud shook him awake. "Did you see Sephiroth?"

"Yeah!" Palmer shouted, "I saw him! With my own eyes!"

Cloud's grip on Palmer loosened and he shook himself loose, but did not run.

"You really saw him?" Cloud asked, trying to find the truth in Palmer's eyes.

"Why would I lie at a time like this! I heard his voice too! Um, he said something about not letting us have the Promised Land." Palmer began to back off, but Cloud felt that he was telling the truth.

"Then does that mean that the Promised Land really does exist, and that Sephiroth's here to save it from Shinra?" Tifa asked from behind Cloud.

"So, he's a good guy then?" Barret asked. Palmer bolted for the balcony door. Cloud let him go.

"_Save_ the Promised Land? A good guy? No way!" Cloud said coarsely. "It's not that simple. I know him. Sephiroth's mission is different!"

Their conversation was cut short by the whirring of helicopter blades. A helicopter was descending, the same helicopter that had brought Aeris to the Headquarters in the first place. This helicopter belonged to the Turks.

Palmer stood on the balcony, waving up at the helicopter. Out of the helicopter there jumped a man dressed in white.

"Rufus!" Barret shouted suddenly, looking out onto the balcony. "Shit! I forgot about him!"

"Who's that?" Tifa asked.

"Vice President Rufus," Barret explained, "The President's son."

And heir to the throne of Midgar, and the world for that matter. Most had only heard legends of the President's ruthless son, that he has never bled, nor cried, and that he killed humans for sport.

They moved onto the balcony to meet the new President.

Palmer was shouting something to Rufus over the helicopter's whir. Rufus was leading his animal familiar out of the helicopter. Cloud likened it to a black panther, but there was something off about it. The black animal, Dark Nation, eyed Red XIII, and the two beasts moved away from the main group.

When Palmer turned and saw Cloud run out onto the balcony, he quickly retreated into the helicopter. Rufus moved to face the four humans and their beast, thumbing behind him. The helicopter flew off and circled the building.

"So," Rufus said, "Sephiroth was actually here. And just who are you?"

Cloud stepped towards him. "I'm Cloud, ex-SOLDIER, First-Class. Behind me are the members of the AVALANCHE faction."

Rufus looked over the motley assortment of characters before him – a raggedy handful of disorganized humans, without uniforms, and a bright red animal familiar. His eyes passed over the hulking, dark-skinned man. The slight, pale-faced woman in the pink dress and combat boots. The busty woman in a barmaid's outfit. "What a crew," he said, and ran his tongue along the front of his teeth. "Well, I'm Rufus. The President of Shinra, Inc."

"You're only President 'cause yer old man died!" Barret derided.

"Correct." Rufus said with surprising confidence. As if the death of his father meant nothing to him. "And since you are the first to see me in my presidency, then I will honour you with my inauguration speech."

Cloud rolled his eyes, _'So,'_ he thought, _'he likes to make speeches, just like his father. So far, so bad.'_

Rufus began to pace around the helipad, gesticulating as he began. "The old man tried to control the world with money, and that worked for him. The people believed that Shinra would protect them. Work at Shinra, get your pay. If terrorists attack, the Shinra army and SOLDIER will help you."

Ceasing his pacing, Rufus turned to the party and raised his eyebrows. "It looked perfect on the outside, but the system was fundamentally flawed. I do things differently." After a pause, Rufus announced, with great emphasis, "I will control this world with fear."

Rufus smiled triumphantly. Cloud was less than impressed. Rufus began pacing and waving his arms again, "It's too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste good money on them."

Cloud leaned in towards Barret's ear while Rufus continued his speech, "Get Aeris outta the building," he whispered.

"What?"

"I'll explain later. Reactors, bombings, it's all behind us. This is the real crisis for the Planet."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll explain later, just take my word for now. I'll come after I take care of him."

Barret nodded and looked at the other three. He motioned for them to follow him, and they returned inside the building. Red XIII trailed at the back, making sure Dark Nation did not attempt to follow. Cloud was alone with Rufus on the windy balcony.

"They didn't like my speech, I take it," Rufus asked coyly.

The wind blew Rufus' overcoat about so that Cloud could see the shotgun at his side. Cloud looked at the shotgun – greeted it with his eyes. He gave the weapon an unseen handshake, he bowed without moving.

"You want to fight me?" Rufus asked. Cloud nodded. They stood perfectly still on the balcony. Dark Nation bared his teeth at Cloud. "I have no more quarrel with AVALANCHE. My attention is directed elsewhere. You can go about your business if you do not mess with mine…"

Cloud stood still.

"Why do you want to fight me?" Rufus asked.

"You want the Promised Land, and Sephiroth," Cloud said plainly.

"That's right," Rufus said, "and that is no great crime. Did you know that Sephiroth is an Ancient?"

"Whatever," Cloud said quickly, "I can't let either you or him have the Promised Land!"

"I see… I guess we won't be allies then."

They stood in silence for a long time, nothing but the wind whipping about their clothing. The helicopter circled around the building, waiting to pick up Rufus before the cleanup teams arrived.

They stood, looking with a silent respect at one another. It is impossible to tell who moved first, but as soon as Rufus had drawn his shotgun and fired at Cloud, he had unsheathed his sword and deflected the blast safely away from him.

Using his lightning stone, Cloud summoned a bolt out of the smoke-filled sky. It reached towards Rufus, but was repelled. It was then that he noticed Dark Nation's collar. It was lined with materia. A beast was a skilled magic user? He thought of Red XIII and his ability to conjure fire. Perhaps Dark Nation was not a simple panther at all.

He was distracted enough for Rufus to get a shot in, and Cloud had barely enough time to move his sword to catch the spray shot. Shrapnel hit him in the forehead and he began to bleed out of it profusely. Enraged, he moved not to Rufus but to Dark Nation, and with a deft stroke he chopped the beast's head off. It landed on the balcony and the creature fell to the ground. Rufus looked at Dark Nation's body, stunned. It was then that Cloud struck Rufus from the side, ripping the fabric in his overcoat. Rufus stumbled back, clutching his side. The bright white of his overcoat began to become soaked with blood, and he screamed in a mixture of pain and anger. He raised his gun and fired, missing Cloud completely.

The helicopter lowered and Rufus grabbed on to the landing rail. Looking back at Cloud, he smirked.

"Heh," he coughed over the noise of the helicopter, "That's all for today!"

The helicopter lifted, leaving Cloud and the corpse of Dark Nation on the balcony. Rufus was helped into the helicopter by Palmer and Tseng.

Cloud walked back into the Presidential office, the trail of Jenova's blood leading onto the balcony. Where had Sephiroth taken her? He moved back out onto the balcony, following the trail. It led right to the edge where Rufus had been standing. And then it vanished.

Below the balcony, in front of the Headquarter entrance, a large army was massing. The Shinra Army was here to kill AVALANCHE by order of Rufus. Upon closer examination, Cloud saw swords in the crowd. SOLDIER was here too. The SOLDIERs, obviously Third-Class or perhaps in training, sat atop motorcycles. All SOLDIERs were trained to ride motorcycles, modern cavalry. This gave Cloud a great and dangerous idea.

Tifa was waiting for him. She had separated from the others. "Where's Rufus?" she asked. "Oh Cloud! Your forehead is bleeding!"

"I'm fine," Cloud wiped the drying blood off his scabbed forehead, "I couldn't finish him. This is gonna get complicated."


	32. Book 1: Escape from Midgar

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book I**

**The Mercenary**

* * *

**Chapter 31**

**Escape from Midgar**

The elevator from the sixty-ninth floor had access to the lobby, so Aeris, Barret and Red XIII had taken it all the way down. From the elevator, they could not see the massive troops collecting in front of the entrance. They reached the lobby, where bodies were scattered about, all killed single-handedly by Sephiroth.

Barret moved towards the glass doors, which were stained red with blood. "I'll go on ahead," he said and swung the door open wide. The door closed behind him and Aeris heard bursts of gunfire. Barret ran back in quickly.

"Fuck!" Barret panted, "We're surrounded!" Aeris gave him a disheartened frown. Barret inhaled deeply and picked up his slouch, showing off, "You know, if I were alone, this wouldn't be a thang, but I gotta reputation to protect, you know?"

"You all get out while you can," Aeris said, "it's not you they're after. It's me."

"Yeah? Well that ain't happenin'. You got caught up in this over Marlene. Now it's my turn to help you!"

"Thank you, sir." Aeris said with sincere gratitude.

"Who you callin' sir? That don't sound right!" Barret said, embarrassed. Her smile affected even him.

Red XIII calmly walked between them, sardonically smiling. "Well then, if you are through talking, may I suggest that we think of a way out of here?"

"Huh?" Barret asked the beast, "Oh, oh yeah, you a cold man. Just like someone else 'round here I know."

"Did you say something?" Red XIII asked.

"Notta thing. So what're we gonna do?"

"Barret!" a familiar voice called. Tifa had arrived on the glass elevator and was running towards them.

"Tifa!" Barret replied, "Where's Cloud?"

Tifa waved them over. "Everyone! Over here!" She began to run further into the lobby.

"Huh? What's up? Where's Cloud?"

"He's coming! Hurry, hurry!"

Aeris was already running after Tifa as they moved underneath the grand staircase. Red XIII stayed close to Aeris, and Barret moved behind them, not sure of where they were going. A small humming was heard above them, but Tifa paid it no mind. They were in the lobby display area, a maze of podiums featuring new Shinra car models. Tifa eyed the new models, ignoring Barret's bouts of protest. Her eyes widened when she found what she was looking for.

They arrived at a display stage. Tifa looked at the new pickup truck model – turquoise paint, three wheels, wishbone suspension, mako 'big-one' cylinder engine. There were two seats in front and plenty of space in the open back. Red XIII looked at the contraption with bewilderment.

Barret smirked, "Hot damn, Tifa! When you get around to kicking ass, you sure don't half-ass it!"

Tifa knew trucks. She motioned to the open bed at the back of the vehicle, smiling at Barret. He made for it while she wrestled with the driver's door. It opened backwards, to her surprise. Aeris climbed into the passenger seat.

The humming from above grew into a loud skidding noise as Cloud wheeled around to meet them. He sat atop a Shinra motorcycle. He nodded to them and Barret laughed heartily, taking a huge step up into the truck bed.

Red XIII remained perplexed until the wheels underneath the truck blasted to life, screeching and propelling the truck off the display stage. Red XIII vaulted through the air and into the truck bed with Barret.

The truck spun around and followed Cloud as he manoeuvred the bike through the display area. The truck burst forth at speeds unfamiliar to Tifa. Cloud deftly swerved the motorcycle around a quartz display sign. The truck came on too fast.

The truck collided with the wall of quartz, blasting through it. Chunks of white rock blew across the lobby, and the truck was thrown to the other side. Barret shouted obscenities from the open bed. Tifa kept her foot on the pedal, wheeling the truck around to follow the motorcycle.

Cloud drove back towards the doors but drifted around to face the grand staircase. The truck turned and started up the staircase, startling it's passengers in the back. Cloud drove as fast as he could up the staircase and they reached the top, where the personnel elevators were. Cloud stopped as he turned towards the window. Beyond the floor to ceiling glass was the unfinished Sector 3 highway, winding through the dark night farther than his glowing eyes could see. Cloud turned his head to meet Tifa's eyes. They smiled at each other, knowing that the time was right.

Tifa slammed her foot on the pedal, and Cloud twisted the throttle on the bike to maximum.

* * *

The brigade sent to the Shinra building to retrieve the Ancient and destroy her companions stood patiently outside. The leader of AVALANCHE had run out of the blood-stained doors moments before, so it wouldn't be long before they charged in.

Suddenly, a glass window at the side of the building shattered, and through the splinters of glass flew a motorcycle. Riding atop was a man with blonde hair waving back with the wind, and as he fell he unsheathed an enormous sword. He landed on the highway and cut into the small barricade of orange and red motorcycles. Out of the window drove a second vehicle, Shinra's new turquoise experimentation truck. It seemed to be working well as it landed harmlessly on the highway and sped off after the motorcycle.

The alarms were sounded and all motorcycles were dispatched after the fugitives.

The highway had never been completed, Shinra meant it to be an inter-city transport highway, but once the Planet had been altered by the mako reactors, building a second Midgar in the same place seemed a bad idea. Instead, Shinra began working on the Neo-Midgar plan, relying on the myth of the Promised Land to fuel his dreams of wealth and power. Little did he know that his dream would be his demise. The highway remained an unfinished road, leading to absolutely nowhere, and ending abruptly before a fifty metre fall just outside of the city.

Cloud rode on the highway with his sword drawn, scraping it against the road for balance. The truck drove just ahead, but it was his job to ensure that no harm came to his companions.

An orange cyclist rode up beside Cloud. An MP was on it, his face concealed by the full mask of his uniform. Cloud slowed down just enough to get into the MPs blind spot. Cloud merged towards the motorcycle, and before the MP knew what was going on, the bikes collided and the orange cyclist crashed into the highway's wall.

Cloud sped up, catching up with the truck.

"Drive as fast as you can!" Cloud yelled, "Leave the MPs to me!" Due to the wind, no one on the truck heard him, not even Barret or Red XIII in the back.

There was a crashing noise behind him, and Cloud looked back. A red motorcycle had driven into the crashed orange one, and a Third-Class SOLDIER flew into the air. Barely avoiding the crash was another red cyclist, who swerved around and drew his thick, lance-like sword.

_'A SOLDIER, eh?'_ Cloud thought, _'Sorry you couldn't make it into First-Class!'_

Cloud slowed down, readying his sword. A few strands of yellow hair blew into his eyes, and he did not notice the orange motorcycle come from behind the SOLDIER.

When Cloud had slowed enough to be within spitting distance, he lifted his sword from the asphalt which had been sharpening it, and clashed with the SOLDIER. It was difficult trying to drive, and his motorcycle tilted towards the road. He took one hand off his sword and steadied the bike, and the SOLDIER swung at Cloud's head.

Cloud ducked, barely avoiding the blade. He was doing poorly against such a low ranking officer. Using the strength of his right arm, he brought the sword up through the SOLDIER's back, and the red cycle stopped abruptly. Cloud barely had time to get a good grip on his sword before it was torn from the body, the wind blew drips of blood from the steel, and they trailed out in long airborne streams.

Cloud looked ahead at the truck and was surprised to find that there was an orange motorcycle trying to drive it off the road.

As Cloud sped to catch it, Barret fired from the back of the truck, blowing the MP's mask clean off, as well as what was within. The orange cycle flipped over itself, rolling along the highway. It was pure luck that Cloud should drive right beneath it as it flipped into the air.

He ducked fast and barely avoiding the flying vehicle that roared over his head, the front tire rolling through his hair, inches away from his tender skull.

The orange motorcycle landed behind Cloud and exploded. The back wheel of Cloud's back motorcycle lifted off the ground from the explosions force, and Cloud jabbed the sword into the concrete just to bring himself back on the ground. His wheel landed and he pulled the sword from the road, leaving a long thin gash where the sword had penetrated it. An MP behind him didn't see the gash in the road, and driving over it at such high velocity caused the MP to crash helplessly in front of another MP, who drove over him without so much as a flinch.

Cloud shook his head at Barret dramatically, so that the large man would get the message, _'Not while I'm behind them!'_

Cloud looked behind him and saw three MPs on motorcycles riding up the highway. Each had a semi-automatic in one hand and they fired. Cloud swerved to avoid the bullets, and the back of the truck was hit a few times. Cloud looked at Red XIII, who understood and closed his left eye.

Cloud felt suddenly as if his soul was no longer on a motorcycle. It was being sucked into Red XIII's being, as were all souls. Everything seemed to collide and become one inside of Red XIII as he cast a very powerful fire spell—inside the engine of an orange motorcycle!

The force from this explosion actually knocked Cloud's bike clear off the road and it performed a front flip midair. Cloud held to the handles for dear life as he was hurtled upside down, he tried desperately to grip his sword and the handle at the same time. When he was fully upside down, he saw the road behind him. Cloud viewed the massive fireball that spread across the highway, and the two MPs on either side who flew out of their seats and off the ramp to their deaths. The smell of burning oil and flesh was intoxicating and Cloud was whipped topside.

He landed on both wheels with a jerk and after a few bounces, Cloud steadied the bike and continued as if nothing had happened. Barret's mouth was open in shock and Cloud gave him a cocky smirk. Meanwhile, the mercenary counted his blessings (the only one he could think of right now was life itself) and drove up to Tifa's window. He yelled at her. Tifa couldn't hear him, and fiddled with the window. Aeris reached over and grabbed the wheel as Tifa tried to find the controls.

The window rolled down and Tifa stuck her head out. Her raven black hair flew back and, due to its length, smacked Barret in the face. He guffawed and batted at it.

Tifa still could not hear Cloud, who was yelling as loud as he could, "This highway ends about three kilometres from here!" he had to repeat himself several times before she understood. By that time, at their speed, it was closer to two kilometres.

More pursuers raced down the highway towards them, and Cloud slowed. Unfortunately, the SOLDIERs on the motorcycles were expecting this, and the two bikes came on either side of him and smashed him from both sides. He found his legs stuck between the bikes and his control of direction gone. They drew their swords but Cloud's was already on its way to one SOLDIER's wrist. With little effort, Cloud cleanly lopped off one of their hands. The terrified driver dropped his sword and clutched his wrist, and his lack of control over the bike sent it careening into the wall. Cloud was already pulling his sword out of the other SOLDIER's midriff, and the bike fell to its side as Cloud sped on.

More MPs on more orange motorcycles. Cloud concentrated his thoughts on casting lightning. Now, he felt as if he was the centre of the universe, everything suddenly was absorbed into him, and he was absorbed into his materia.

A bolt of lightning descended from the sky and hit the pavement harmlessly as the cyclist drove on, a little shaken but not hit.

'_All right,'_ Cloud thought_, 'onto plan B – slash their tires.'_

And he did just that. With the back tire gone, one of the motorcycles flipped right over, crushing the drivers head on impact, there was another cyclist right behind them and they collided, sending the second driver right over the highway and into Sector 3.

The was only one SOLDIER left, who was driving up to Cloud with his sword drawn. Cloud was exhausted, but he readied his sword, the glow from the materia stone inside fading.

Swords met and the impact of the two motorcycles sent them both spinning uncontrollably down the highway, blades drawing closer to each other's throats. Cloud looked into the SOLDIER's glowing blue eyes and saw something of himself in there. He remembered, briefly, what it felt like to give his life for Shinra, for the might of the empire. He saw that determination in this young lad's eyes. Together, swords crossed, their wheels drifting in circles down the rough asphalt, behind each other they only saw a spinning blur, until Cloud noticed the truck slowing down very quickly.

Sensing the edge was near, Cloud pushed with all of his might on his sword. The SOLDIER did as well, and Cloud jumped free of his seat.

Cloud landed on his right arm and rolled along the highway. The asphalt raked his face. He heard the screech of brakes ahead but soon after it was horrible silence. As Cloud rolled to a stop, a single scream rang out from the SOLDIER who fell with the motorcycles off the highway's edge. It faded into a loud silence.

Cloud tested his limbs. Nothing broken. The truck emptied and the new members of AVALANCHE walked towards him. They heard the soft thud of the motorcycles hitting the earth.

"Well," Barret relaxed, staring off of the highway and into the mountain regions that surrounded Midgar. "What do we do now?"

Cloud walked to the edge and looked down. There was a bar underneath the pavement that could be used to tie a rope to, if there was one in the truck. He looked back at Aeris, who struggled with Tifa to carry the giant rope. They dropped it after a few feet. Cloud smiled. _'Luck,'_ he thought. _'A fool's fortress.'_

"Cloud?" Barret asked, "I said: what do we do now?"

"Sephiroth is alive," Cloud said calmly, "…I have to settle the score."

His head raced with a million questions. Sephiroth could be alive. Why had he let Cloud free? Why hadn't he killed him in his sleep? Where had he been the last five years? The questions would only grow in number.

"Will that save the Planet?" Barret asked.

"It seems so," Cloud assured. He wondered then, if he believed that answer, or if he only sought Barret's help. _'Surely,'_ he thought, _'it must be the former. Barret's help?'_

Barret gave his usual response, "Save the Planet? Then I'm going!"

"I'll go, too," Aeris stepped up beside Cloud and looked out onto the mountains. "There are things I need to know."

"About the Ancients?" Cloud turned to her and their eyes met. He could smell the flowers in the church, and in her house. Her smell. She looked into his eyes pensively.

"Many things," she added, and turned her gaze towards the mountains again.

Dragging the rope from behind Cloud was Tifa. Barret and Red XIII were quick to help with the weight. Tifa was on her knees and bent over the road. Cloud worried for her safety. She tied one end of the rope to the bar.

"Should be strong enough," she said, and stood back on her feet. Aeris took Cloud's wrist and led it to the rope. The five of them pushed the enormously long rope over the edge, and they watched it fall towards the scorched earth.

"I guess it's goodbye, Midgar," Tifa sighed, and grabbed a hold of the rope. Looking at Cloud and smiling, she slid down towards the ground. Her slide was easy, her grip never wavered, her gloves kept her hands safe. Aeris followed, climbing down slowly. Cloud's attention turned to Red XIII, who had paws and could not climb ropes. Red XIII moved towards the rope, and with a deep breath grabbed the rope with his mouth and clung as best he could to the rope as he fell towards the ground. Barret went next hanging on with his one arm and letting himself drop at slow intervals. Cloud seemed the only one fit for climbing ropes, and he went last.

* * *

Once he reached the bottom, the five of them had sat down on the ground and were taking a break. They were outside the gates of the Sector 3 Slums. At the gate, there stood a sleepy gatekeeper whose job it was to sit and let people in or out of the slums. One wondered why he even had a job, for not many people left Midgar, and those wanting to enter the slums were of no consequence to Shinra Inc.

'_Shinra Inc… it's now controlled by Rufus, who's even more ruthless than his father. A sad state of affairs for those who loved peace. He'll probably declare a war in a year or two. Perhaps against their old enemy Wutai. Perhaps against someone new. It doesn't matter,'_ Cloud thought about this as Barret talked to Aeris.

"Before we left, we told your mom to go somewhere safe. Marlene will be with her, they'll be safe," Barret said, but he turned to Cloud just to make sure, "right?"

"Yeah," Cloud said, unsure of himself, "they should be."

'_What have I become?' he asked himself, 'Asking people to stay with me? Assuring people that everything's going to be alright? I'm no mercenary, I'm a sap.'_

"Mom said she didn't want to stay in Midgar anymore," Aeris said. "Maybe it's for the best. This is the first time I've ever left Midgar either."

"It's dangerous," Cloud warned. "Are you sure you want to go?"

Aeris giggled, "I thought you'd say that."

'_I can't win.'_

Tifa seemed forlorn, and caressed her gloves."This is the start, then. We have a whole journey ahead of us."

"You hate travelling?" Cloud asked.

"I don't know. But I don't have anywhere else to go, so I guess it doesn't really matter whether I like it or not. But I should be all right, if you keep your promise."

"I have no reason to travel with you," Red XIII said, "Other than convenience. I'm going back to my hometown. I'll go with you as far as that."

'_Wow, that kind of hurt. Red XIII doesn't act like he needs anyone at all. Maybe he's like me. Maybe we just don't need anyone. Even so, is that an excuse? The way I've been acting, treating everyone… Biggs, Wedge, Jessie… I was a real asshole to them. I was there with them for the last days of their lives, and I did nothing but cause trouble. Am I different with Tifa, or Barret or Aeris? Is this the beginning of the end for all of us?'_

"Let's go," Cloud said, the edge coming back to his voice.

"We need a leader for our journey!" Barret announced, punching the air. "Of course, that could only be me."

"You think so?" Tifa asked.

Aeris gave Cloud a sidelong glance and then turned to everyone, "I think it should be Cloud."

'_Aeris… trusts me? I'm horrible to them… we just met anyway!'_

Barret stopped shadow-boxing and looked at Aeris. When he saw that she was serious, he looked at everyone else, they seemed to be in accordance with her. "Shit," he kicked the dirt, "Awright. But do you know where you are going?"

'_Did anyone ask me if I wanted to be the leader? Like Red XIII, I'll go with you until I reach my own destination. I have to get to Sephiroth. I need to find Sephiroth. If you want to come, that's fine. But let me go my way. I'm a mercenary, I'm no member of AVALANCHE. I don't see any pay for being with you. And yet… I wouldn't mind if you stay.'_

"Cloud? You lost?" Barret huffed.

"When you're nowhere, you can't be lost," Cloud snapped back. "The Wastelands are ahead of us. Nothing but barren rock, ruins and monsters. It's a two day walk to Kalm, which lies at the edge of the Grasslands. Shinra controls the town, but it's not heavily enforced like the slums. We can spend some time there and find out what Sephiroth is up to. If anything happens to us in the Wastelands, we'll meet up at the inn in Kalm or die trying. Satisfied?"

Barret was stunned at Cloud's sudden quality of leadership. Cloud realized again just how little Barret knew of SOLDIER, of warriors, and of what he was up against.

'_I know where I'm going. Just don't… hold me down. I don't care about the Planet, do I? Do I believe in your cause, or is it the pouch of gil you gave me? Why is Tifa coming, if she hates to travel? She should be making her way, finding a new bar. Aeris should be tending to her flowers. Barret has Marlene to think of. Why are these people here? They have lives, all of them, different tasks. Why must I lead? Where must I lead them to?'_

"East," he pointed and began to walk. The rest of the group nodded and they headed out without looking back. They began to cross the Wastelands, Cloud's dusty boots plodding once again on dead soil. Within an hour they could see grass in the distance, and the setting sun beyond the mountains.

**End of Book I**


	33. Foreward to Book 2: The World on Foot

**Foreward **

Well, we made it through Book I! Congratulations, you're over 60k into my mammoth novelization, I commend you. If you have any thoughts on this book (and you must after thirty-four chapters) leave a review and tell me about it, even if you think you're saying nothing it means a lot to me. I'm not ashamed to admit that I wrote this book _for_ people, and the best way to improve a work like this is to have the people tell me what they want.

On a related note, even though you've already ventured through all of Book I, I am not finished with it yet. Oh no! I am constantly rewriting, updating and editing this book. My original audience had to deal with a nineteen-year-old me writing them a book fraught with flaws but while I was writing I became continually inspired. Needless to say my writing has improved in the over 350k journey getting from front to back, so I'm continually trying to make the complete work as consistent as possible. If you want to be notified of updates to chapters you have already read, check out my profile page to see the latest updates to this story (I'll be posting them on there.)

If you think that I've been keeping too close to the original dialogue and story so far, I've got some good news and bad news for you. The good news? It starts getting a little less linear from here on out, I start to take more liberties with the characters and story here. This is what usually happens in novelizations after the first part of the story ends. The bad news is exactly the same as the good news. This is where some people might have different ideas about the characters, and I apologize in advance for dispelling any notions of your characters.

Books II, III and IV were all released in a single volume of The Jenova Project. Because of their length, and their varying styles, they are divided into three books. For the table of contents please refer to the first page on this site.

**A Note About Character Indexes**

I used to have detailed Character Indexes at the beginning of each book. I no longer think these are necessary, and I have deleted them. It was sad to see all of my hard work go, but it's for the best.

With that said, you are ready to begin your next step into the world of Final Fantasy VII. Enjoy "The World on Foot."

-Mr. Ite


	34. Cloud's Recollection: The Mutant

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Cloud's Recollection: The Mutant**

_There came a satisfyingly crunchy sound as our six-wheeled armoured transport snapped the branches beneath it. Each was pulled up and bended until it cracked and sloshed itself into the waters of the ravine. I remember that – that, and the applause of the rain on the hood. It was so late in December, it should have been snow, but I guess it was just warm enough to melt the sky. The sounds and smells and the taste of the air I can remember clearly, although from what I can gather (let alone what others tell me) memory can be an unreliable source, and it's often proven that way, especially when it comes to the Nibelheim Incident._

_Come to think of it, the five years between the Nibelheim Incident and joining AVALANCHE are completely lost on me, and my life before the Incident is blurry and inconsequential._

_Sephiroth stood in the hangar of the armoured transport, which most members of SOLDIER just called 'buggies'. He was as still as a razor weed; he didn't even seem to lean when the buggy splashed through the shallows of the Crystal River. He was a solid as a hero should be; everything from his trademark black trench-coat to his impossibly long, impossibly white hair was picturesque._

_I was a whirlwind – pacing around the hangar at near sprint, a blur of blues and purples, and yellows on top. When the buggy crashed over a small dune I stumbled until my SOLDIER reflexes steadied me, and I continued pacing around._

_The MP whom I had befriended sat on a wooden crate by a window, looking out at the rain that pelted the Nibel Valley. He put his head between his legs and began to moan._

_We were a long way from Midgar, for the metropolis was on the eastern continent, and we were far in the west. Out here, towns were few and far between; we had spent all day in the buggy, looking at nothing but the storm battering the valley._

_"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked. The young MP waved to me, and it seemed as if he wanted me to sod off. And that was fine; I'd never had motion sickness, so it was difficult for me to relate. I couldn't even gauge his discomfort, for the Shinra military police uniform included a full faced mask._

_The other MP might be friendlier, thought I, so I walked over to the other side of the hangar. "Everything okay?"_

_"Hey," Sephiroth interrupted calmly. I stopped and looked at him. "Settle down."_

_It was the first he had spoken since we had crossed the Valley of the Fallen Star; he had been a statue in the buggy for hours. Sephiroth: a retired war hero, had led countless troops into victorious battle, had commanded the General Affairs Department of Shinra Inc. (aka: Turks) and had been the very icon of Shinra's might. And now, now he was a SOLDIER, the same as any First-Class. Despite his calm demeanour, there was a terrible trouble always going on underneath the surface. Behind his cat-like green eyes. Still, his voice was strong, stronger than any other voice I had ever known. That was Sephiroth for you._

_Me? I had a natural gift for fighting, and my energetic spirit and surprising strength had earned me honours beyond my imagination. Alas, by the time I had made First-Class, Sephiroth had almost single-handedly won Shinra's war, and my hopes of being a hero had died with Sephiroth's victory. The man whom I had aspired to be had taken that very dream away from me, and I must admit that I dwelt in spite for a long time. Until the day we met._

_After the war, it was SOLDIER's job to put down any resistance against Shinra Inc. and their provinces. After working on several missions, Sephiroth and I had become acquaintances… no, close friends. I was sixteen and Sephiroth was twenty-five, so perhaps my old fondness for him was fogging my judgement. However, we trusted each other, more than words could say. We had faced the Kalm resistance faction and had taken down every last one of those "hippie bastards!", as Heidegger had called them. The two of us had been sent to the icy glaciers of Gaia's cliff, to the dangerous forests of Corel, to the peaceful jungles of Mideel, to Midgar to the Goblin Islands, the Cactuar deserts, to the end of the world and back – we had done it all together. Together, we were unstoppable._

_Sephiroth seemed to complete me; where I faltered he always picked up, and according to him on several occasions, I was the perfect partner. On the buggy, his strong voice, his still poise, he was both respected and... loved, even._

_"It's hard not to be excited," I admitted. "They finally gave me a second materia!"_

_"...Just like a child on his birthday," Sephiroth smirked._

_"Is that what I get for being honest with you? Belittling?" I tried to change the subject, "Are you going to brief us on the mission?"_

_"This isn't a typical mission," Sephiroth said._

_"Good!" I cried, a little too soon. I had let my serious cover slip. I had gone back into what Sephiroth called 'Cloud Strife's brash and careless mode.'_

_I think that was where Sephiroth and I differed the most. I was very quick, loyal and, yes, I'll admit, headstrong, which made me a perfect SOLDIER. Sephiroth, on the other hand, was very tactful. When he moved, he moved slowly and fluidly, his long hair and longer warrior cloak waving slowly behind him, and they seemed to weigh less than normal matter, as if when Sephiroth moved, he was passing through water. When he spoke, he spoke slowly. When he attacked, he moved so fluidly and with such precision, that I had never seen him miss. I still felt a great longing to be like him, so natural, perfect. I saw unusual missions as a chance to prove myself as the next Sephiroth, but my actions disproved that. I sat on the wooden crate beside my MP friend and listened to Sephiroth's briefing._

_"Our mission is to investigate an old mako reactor," Sephiroth explained. "There have been reports of it malfunctioning, and producing brutal creatures. First, we will dispose of those creatures, and then we'll locate the problem and neutralize it."_

_"Brutal creatures..." I thought aloud. "Where?"_

_"The mako reactor at Nibelheim."_

_"Nibelheim! That's where I'm from!" I felt a great heavy weight – I can only describe it as guilt – but it still nags at me, even when I'm recalling this. My hometown… what would they think, what would they say if they saw me? I'd been gone for two years. Tifa, and my Mom… everyone._

_Sephiroth seemed to sense this in me, and he nodded, "Hometown... you'd-"_

_I felt a great jarring churning in my stomach as the buggy rocked on impact. I fell off the crate. Perhaps this was what motion sickness was like._

_Up at the front of the buggy, the driver shouted, "Sir! Something strange just crashed into the buggy!"_

_"That would be our monster," Sephiroth stated flatly. He didn't seem affected by the impact at all, he stood exactly how he was. I was picking myself off the floor when he announced, "Driver, open the door."_

_The door to the buggy opened, and the two SOLDIERs (that's us!) ran out, swords drawn._

_Sephiroth had given me the sword, the 'buster sword.' He said it was his old General's in the war, who had fallen. It is said that after his general's death, Sephiroth wielded it and his impossibly long 'masamune', each with one hand, taking down an entire legion of men by himself. I could wield only the buster sword, and needed two hands, but he had been impressed that a young man like me could wield such a large sword. Sephiroth's incredible strength impressed me beyond words every time he fought. He was far stronger in reality than in any of the stories I'd heard as a child. The masamune was longer than he was tall, and when he unsheathed it, he zipped it through the air as if it were a conductor's baton. After our many battles though, I had learned to at least try not to be mesmerized by the way Sephiroth fought. I focused on the creature hobbling towards us._

_It was humanoid, which was not what I expected. Nibel monsters are usually wolves, velamyus, and legends say dragons (but that's ridiculous!). This… this mutant was blue skinned and covered head to toe with scales. It was as if some great metamorphosis had begun taking place but was halted – the man was like a jayju bug that had escaped from its chrysalis. In place of hair, the mutant had thick, tentacle shaped horns that cracked like the skin around fingernails in the summer sun, weighing down a head that was already too big for its body, its moaning mouth contorted. Its howls were haunting, the likes of which I would not experience again until five years later in the dawn of Sector 5… but I don't want to think about sick man… I'm trying to recall the events of five years ago._

_It stumbled in our direction on weak legs, which seemed to glow like scolding iron, despite the hard rain that drenched them. It was limping._

_"He is drowning in despair," Sephiroth's voice was full of pity, as loud and rigid as the rainfall, "and in deep pain. What a horrible existence."_

_"Let's put him out of his misery!" I shouted._

_"Yes, but not by the blade." Sephiroth sheathed his masamune at his side and closed his eyes. I felt the familiar ethereal tug of magic from Sephiroth's soul. The rain seemed to draw towards him, and yet the water seemed to flow around him._

_The earth around the mutant grew up slowly, as if the earth was sprouting two small mountains. Out of the moving earth grew dozens of beautiful red flowers. Slowly the vines encircled themselves around the limbs of the mutant. At first, the creature struggled, but there was some poison in the thorns, sedating him, and his muscles relaxed._

_To this day, I don't know what kind of materia Sephiroth had used to conjure such a spell. The flowers wrapped around the mutant and the ground reached up and swallowed him. In his last Moments on life, he looked at Sephiroth in an almost thankful way. He would die peacefully beneath the Planet's surface._

_Sephiroth's mercy that night never left me. It would not be a story long forgotten, as they say that the flowers that grow on the grave of the mutant are indestructible. Sephiroth's last great deed before his death._

_After the death of the mutant, we, the two friends looked at each other and we sincerely smiled. Cloud and Sephiroth, Sephiroth and I. Two beings of different backgrounds, different tales, and yet, so similar. It was a strange kinship, but one we would both remember until the day we died._

_We returned to the buggy and headed closer to Nibelheim, where our friendship would meet its end._


	35. Cloud's Recollection: The Gates of Nibel

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Cloud's Recollection: The Gates of Nibelheim  
**

_Tifa's grandfather had a truck, which was a big deal in Nibelheim. It was beside the wooden arch with the town's name on top – but the old, rusted shell of a vehicle was the real gate of Nibelheim. One wheel missing, the other two were flat. Like a big signpost saying 'Welcome to Nowheresville.'_

_I didn't say any of this to anyone. You always know your hometown more than anywhere else, so it always seems smaller. Nibelheim was Midgar before Midgar: the cultural and technological hub of the world. Extensive school library. The first mako reactor. Population: 150._

_We parked our buggy next to Grandfather Lockheart's truck. That's what everyone called him, Grandfather Lockheart, and he died before I left, a real folk hero. Tifa's father was mayor, I figured he would have taken care of the truck, one way or the other. Instead, the truck was just ignored. Too sentimental to destroy, too much of a hassle to take care of. I think that said a lot about what kind of mayor Lockheart was._

_Sephiroth exited the buggy first. The door fell open and turned into a ramp to walk down. When he walked he walked like he was underwater – the air undulated around him as if shying away from his power. It had stopped raining at this time, and I even wondered if that was the Planet's doing or Sephiroth's manifest. The MP without motion sickness quickly exited the buggy after Sephiroth, while me and sickly stayed behind a few seconds._

_After we exited the buggy, I pulled the door from the ground back up and it latched closed. The driver pulled the buggy away, the six wheels coughing up dirt from the pathway._

_Sephiroth moved up to the entranceway and read the letters painted on the wooden header: Nibelheim._

_"How does it feel?" Sephiroth asked, reading the sign with a certain interest. When he got no response from me, he turned to face me. _

_I was busy looking at the sign. I had changed so much in the two years since last looking upon the painted letters of my hometown. I'd cut my hair. It spiked naturally upwards now. Tunics were bumpkin clothes, I wore the urban fashions – turtleneck vest, faded dungarees. I had traded in my hemp string belt for SOLDIERs monocrys plackart around my midsection and an iron pauldron over only my left arm. For the life of me, I can't remember what had happened to the right one... oh well, I must have lost it on a previous quest._

_I looked the part of a SOLDIER. I had slain countless beasts and men in the two years since I left. I was every inch a man. I mean, I cut my own hair. Much had changed._

_Sephiroth had said something to me, but I was long lost. I looked down at him, and he saw in my eyes that I hadn't heard. Sephiroth could read me like that._

_"This is your first time back to your hometown in a long time, right?" Sephiroth seemed genuinely curious, "So how does it feel?"_

_Why did he want to know that? Had he not returned to his hometown ever? We'd travelled the world together, we must have come across his hometown sometime. Again, it was like he read my mind, and he answered, "I wouldn't know. I never had a hometown."_

_"What about your parents?"_

_Sephiroth looked at the ground. "My mother's name was Jenova. She died right after she gave birth to me. My father..."_

_Sephiroth grew a smirk and began to laugh quietly inside his chest. Regaining his composure, he shrugged the topic off. "What does it matter?" he asked, and passed the gates into Nibelheim. "Let's go."_

_The town was quiet. Everyone was locked away inside their houses, afraid to come out because of the mutants. Or was it because they knew what Shinra was sending to them? Two members of the most fearsome organization on the Planet had arrived in Nibelheim. _

_Sephiroth and I quickly scanned the area. The MPs scurried about the town looking for beasts. There seemed to be none in the town. They must have retreated back into the mountains or wandered out of the town and into the Nibel Valley._

_The town square was silent, save for the dripping of the rain off the last rooftops. Ah yes, the familiar off-white stucco houses, every house looked the same. It was home, right down to the brown gingerbread fascia boards on every wall. The water tower stood at the center of the square, lazily pumping up water from below the Planet's surface. I'd announced my ambitions for SOLDIER on that tower, two years before. I felt... proud of myself._

_"We leave for the reactor at dawn," Sephiroth said. "Make sure you get to sleep early. All we'll need tonight is one lookout, so you others, get some rest."_

_Sephiroth moved to the entrance of the inn, but thoughtfully stopped and turned to me. "Oh," he said, "You may visit your family and friends."_

_There was two hours until dusk, the sun was moving behind the Nibel Mountains, their large natural stone spires casting long shadows over the town. Only one man had dared come out of his house._

_Two years before, I had known this man by the name of Augustus Fawlher. Augustus was the owner of the General Store in Nibelheim, and his son, whose name I've forgotten, planned to move to Midgar around the same time as me, but I never saw him in the city. In fact, most of Nibelheim had gone to Midgar, and none of them had contacted me. But such trivial matters weren't important now. The children from Nibelheim were just that – children. Children reaching adulthood and deciding not to grow up. I was better than them, above them. I was a member of SOLDIER._

_Augustus was running up to me. I really didn't want him to; he was the bumbling sort, the kind I didn't like as a kid. Around his neck, he had a camera. He reached me and said, "I heard Sephiroth was coming, so I brought my camera. I want a shot of Sephiroth and a monster."_

_Augustus looked at me, and peered at my face quizzically. Moving towards him, Augustus seemed to inspect me, although my face was in plain sight. My eyes were different now, which might have explained why he was looking at my eyes so intently, and disregarding the rest of my face._

_"Hey, aren't you Cloud Strife?" Augustus asked, as if my bright yellow hair didn't give it away. A nod in return proved him right. "Aw man! That's great! Hey, I should get a picture of you and Sephiroth!"_

_As he would later explain, the owner of the general store had taken up photography as an art; the camera around his neck was homage to all the money the store had made. Cameras were not common, even in large towns such as Nibelheim. Of course, in the big city of Midgar, everyone above the plate had "two and a half cameras" according to Augustus. We chatted for a bit. It was tedious. After a small amount of time passed (which, still, was too long) I advised him to return to his home, for the town was no longer safe at night. Augustus returned to his home and I moved to the MP, who was also moving about the town talking to those few who had been brave enough to leave their houses. (What was the name of that MP? That's going to bug me forever…)_

_There were two houses that faced town square that I had an interest in visiting. Surely, everyone in town knew the yellow-haired boy who had left to join SOLDIER, but I didn't much feel like seeing them now anyway. I had changed since leaving Nibelheim. But I needed to see my Mom. I walked to the house adjacent to the great stairway that led out of town square. The house of my childhood._


	36. Cloud's Recollection: Cloud's Mother II

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Cloud's Recollection: Cloud's Mother II**

_I don't see what this has to do with the Nibelheim Incident. They want me to continue, but it's irrelevant... and I don't remember it very well. I try to, but my head gets fuzzy... and hot. I try to picture it, but it gets too bright – like a flash bulb. But it comes to me in my sleep sometimes. What I remember goes like this._

_My old house. I opened the door, it felt like I was breaking in. I knew which floorboards creaked, so I nimbly stepped around them in the front hallway. I had grown up here, alone with Mom. My father had died when I was very young, and once I had left for Midgar, Mom lived by herself in this house._

_She was sitting in the living room, concealed behind a large mauve armchair but her feet clearly visible propped up on the chair's matching ottoman. A small fire was dying in the stone fireplace, the fire curtain drawn._

_I felt the warm glow of my childhood creep up on me. Many nights, me and Mom curled up on the armchair and she told me great stories about dragons and kings and lands of old, so long ago that they were not taught in history anymore. Hundreds of years ago, when there were kingdoms and warriors of light, of villains trapped in time and princesses in great peril. I used to love those stories, but I was grown up now. Dragons weren't real. I was sixteen – a legal adult – and I had left Nibelheim, along with it the cozy nights by the fire and the stories of my childhood._

_But I felt so small standing there, even though I had grown a few inches and my eyes had aged. I felt like a little boy, aching for a front row seat at the fireplace again. The kind of closeness to it that requires breaks because your skin gets too hot. Like dragon's fire. I wanted stories again. I wanted heroics. The real world is too harsh, too real. _

_There she was, there was Mom, and I couldn't think of anything to say._

_"Uh…" I gestured, stumbling over my discomfort._

_The feet moved quickly off the ottoman and Mom peeked over the back of the chair._

_"Yes?" she asked, but as soon as the words escaped her lips, she stood up and ran towards me, giving me that motherly embrace. Different now, that I was taller, but still warm and comforting._

_"Cloud! Welcome home, Cloud!"_

_…I don't, I can't remember…_

_I can't even try to remember what happened right after that… I get this screaming headache, and a blinding fog covering my vision. It's horrible._

_So I'll skip ahead._

_The next thing I remember clearly is being in my kitchen. The kitchen was basically the same room as the living room, only elevated by a single small step. I stood on the linoleum, my boots were dirty but I didn't want to take them off. I felt… foreign here. Mom was lighting up another fire._

_"Come, come," she said, "let me take a look at you."_

_We met halfway, I stepped down into the living room and she walked around me. She hummed approval over my change in form. I had filled out. I've been called 'skinny,' and 'scrawny' and 'a tall drink of water,' even now, but it was much worse when I was a kid. When I joined SOLDIER, my muscles grew a lot, hell, carrying around that sword all day was bound to do that to me. When I was fourteen, it was hard to tell muscle from bone, but my determination was what had given me the edge to be in SOLDIER. My strength had come from my hard work._

_"Oh, you're so handsome," Mom said. She had finished walking around me and now stood facing me. "So this is a SOLDIER uniform?"_

_"Mom, I—"_

**FLASH!**_ Ah!_

_I can't remember what happens after that. The next thing I remember is…_

_"My, how you've grown," my mother said. I lay on the bed of my childhood. I had far outgrown it, but this visit was nice. "I'll bet the girls never leave you alone."_

_I sighed. "Not really."_

_My room remained exactly the same as when I had left. Mom hadn't cleaned it, and I wondered if she had entered at all. She slowly walked towards the bed. "I'm worried about you. There are a lot of temptations in the city... I'd feel a lot better if you just settled down and had a nice girlfriend."_

_"I'm all right," I shrugged._

_"You should have... an older girlfriend, one that'll take care of you. I think that would be the perfect type for you."_

_"...I'm not interested..." I said._

**Flash.**

_My memory becomes a swirling blur of images. Thinking about it gives me a headache. We were inside the kitchen again; Mom was making hedgehog pie for dessert._

_"Are you eating right?" she asked, stirring the ingredients (most of which were different sugars)._

_"I'm all right," I said again, and it seemed to me as if my visit became a long series of assuring my mother that I was healthy and behaving myself. "The company takes care of me."_

_"Is that so?" Mom asked, dumping the ingredients into a round pan and inserting it into the oven. "I know you can't cook, I've been worried sick about you."_

**Flash.**

_I don't remember eating the pie, or what we had for dinner. Thinking about anything else is hard – I can only remember snippets. We were by the fire, she in the armchair, and I stood over it, looking into it._

_"Cloud?" she asked._

**Flash.**

_"You know, Cloud..." Now I sat in the armchair and Mom was pacing around the living room, tapping her finger to her mouth._

**Flash.**

_"Isn't that right, Cloud?" She asked as we washed dishes in the kitchen._

**Flash.**

_"Cloud?"_

**Flash.**

_"Cloud..."_

**Flash. Flash. Flash. Flash. Flash! Flash! Flash!**

_"…I will always be your mother."_

_Let's stop this._


	37. Cloud's Recollection: Shadow of a Friend

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Cloud's Recollection: Shadows of a Friend  
**

_There was one more house I needed to visit before heading to the inn. The house right beside mine was the Lockheart house. Tifa's father was the mayor of Nibelheim, and, unlike the mayor of Midgar, he had power over the town and its people. Upon entering Tifa's house, I walked upstairs looking for her. She wasn't there. I went into her room with no hesitation and looked around._

_The bed was made. The window overlooked the familiar town square and the well. Tifa had gotten a new desk in the last two years, and on it was a note, but I made sure not to read it. Instead, I went to the piano and sat. I looked at the melody she had been playing._

Do-Re-Mi-Ti-La

Do-Re-Mi-So-Fa-Do-Re-Do

_Wow. Why do I remember _that_ so vividly? I don't know much about music, but I recognized that tune. It's like a travelling song, I think. I remember humming it on my first journey to Midgar, if my memory is correct. Maybe she had played it often when we were children._

_I don't know why I lingered there in her room for so long. The note on the desk beckoned me to come read, but I refused, plinking a few high keys on the piano to distract myself. Curiosity eventually got the best of me and I moved over to the desk and read the note on the table. When I had finished reading, I was mildly upset both at the letter and at myself. It was not in the nature of a SOLDIER to snoop around girl's rooms, for after I had read the message and dwelt on it for a few minutes, her underwear drawer began to beckon me, and it was at that moment that I resigned myself to leaving the house in a hurry. What was on my mind was not the underwear drawer, nor the tune on the piano; it was the letter on Tifa's desk._

Tifa

How are you? I just arrived in Midgar eight days ago. Yesterday, all the guys from Nibelheim got together to welcome me. The only person that we couldn't get a hold of was Cloud. But everyone said he wasn't really that close to us. So even if we asked, he probably wouldn't have come anyway. Well, enough about him. Midgar is really something. But to tell the truth, I feel so behind on everything... so out of it. Right now, I'm living in the slums, but I plan to move to a really nice room, like the ones I've seen in magazines, once I make some money. ...But, to do that, I guess I have to find a job first. That's right. I still haven't found a job yet. I lied to my parents and told them I found a great job with Shinra, Inc. I wonder if it's too late to go back. Sometimes I think I should've taken over my parents' store.

I just made it here to Midgar but all I think about is Nibelheim. Hey, Tifa... Is that stupid old water tower still working? Is the old man at the Inn doing well? Are my parents still at the shop everyday? And most of all how are you, Tifa? It feels like I haven't seen you for years. We were talking about you last night. Everyone likes you. But because everyone idolizes you, I couldn't very well stab them in the back. I always acted cool, but actually I was just afraid of being jilted. Wow, if I keep writing like this, this'll become a love letter! So, I think I'll stop here. Take care. I'll write again.

_I do not remember who wrote the letter, but it might've been the son of Augustus from the general store (I'm horrible with names)._

_I walked into the inn and the innkeeper informed me that Sephiroth was upstairs in our suite. I turned to head up the stairs, but noticed a strange man in the hotel lobby looking at me thoughtfully. I turned and approached him. He was an elderly guy, but by no means decrepit. His short grey beard framed his mightily chiselled jaw, and he loomed above me, nearly twice as thick with muscle._

_"Is Shinra here to get rid of the monsters?" the man asked._

_"Yes, and who are you?" I wondered._

_"My name is Zangan. I travel all over the world, teaching children martial arts. In this town, a girl named Tifa is my student."_

_"I know Tifa," I stated. "She's learned martial arts, has she? Tell me of her."_

_"Tifa has good sense. She'll be a powerful fighter," Zangan said. "But it is getting late and I should go to my room."_

_The Shinra MP who was not on lookout duty now stood in the inn beside me, although I did not notice him come in. He had apparently recovered from his motion sickness and moved briskly upstairs. I followed him to our suite, and Zangan went to his._

_In the hallway there was a window looking out onto the Nibel Mountains. The reactor was a small speck on the tip of the mountain, and the surrounding land was an ash grey, like the area around Midgar (or any reactor for that matter). When I was an infant, there were trees and animals on the mountains, but throughout my youth, the trees withered, the animals turned hostile and attacked the townsfolk. The once peaceful mountain turned into a steep rocky place that no one traveled unless they were equipped for life threatening dangers. In the two years that I had been gone, the death had reached the bottom of the mountain and was creeping towards the town. But I figured the people of Nibelheim were strong and vigilant – they would survive if they wanted to._

_Sephiroth looked out the window as I approached him. "I've hired a guide to the mako reactor. She's young; I hope we can rely on her. This scenery... I feel like I know this place."_

_It was a dead place._

_

* * *

_

_I woke up to that old feeling of dewey winter sweat. I was insulated in the blankets, but the late December bite was out. I missed the un-cold of Midgar. When I did manage to get up and walk to the window, I found that the sun was already a ways up, and I was alone in the hotel room. Grabbing my equipment, I ran out of the inn and through the town square, past the house of my childhood and towards the rendezvous point._

_The Shinra mansion was the oldest building in Nibelheim, and it sat at the northernmost point, overlooking the entire town. Before Midgar had been built fifty years ago, every Shinra big wig had lived in the mansion. In those fifty years, the death from mount Nibel had reached it. The garden out front had died and was now grey and withered. Vines that had grown up the large chimney stack were black as night. The building looked grey and cast early morning shadows over the group, which consisted of Sephiroth, the MPs and Mayor Lockheart. Arriving there, I looked at Sephiroth with guilt. I was late. We stood in front of the old gate that led inside the garden of the Shinra mansion._

_"Once the guide gets here," Sephiroth yawned, "we're heading out."_

_Mayor Lockheart stepped forward and stammered as he spoke. "Listen to me, Sephiroth," Lockheart said, "in case something happens-"_

_"Trust me," Sephiroth said calmly, and that seemed to be all the mayor needed to hear. He stepped back and exhaled. However, he shot a quick look at me. I knew very well that Mr. Lockheart did not trust me, and it had been that way since I was a child._

_I had not been a bad child, just a clumsy one._

_While I was wondering where Mr. Lockheart had been when I was snooping around in his house the day before, light footsteps came briskly up the staircase. I turned around to see a girl about my age. "I'll be all right, Papa!" she said to the mayor, "I have two men from SOLDIER with me!"_

_Turning to Sephiroth she held out her hand, "Hi! I'm Tifa, nice to meet you!"_

_Sephiroth shook her hand and said his own name in turn._

_"Tifa!" I exclaimed, "you're the guide!"_

_She looked so… grown up – in just two years. Her long dresses had gotten shorter – or had her legs simply gotten longer? In any case, the rest of her body had become a woman, as I had become a man. She wore earth-tones, as was the style five years ago. She turned to me proudly, and tipped the massive brim of her straw hat so she could see me fully._

_Tifa turned to me and said proudly, "I just happen to be the number one guide in this town!"_

_"It's too dangerous! I can't have you involved in something like this!"_

_Sephiroth stepped towards me and said, rather coldly, "Then there's no problem if you protect her. Let's go."_

_Those words pierced right through me. It was almost as if Sephiroth wasn't even talking to me. As if I was a child speaking out of turn. I couldn't let it get to me. I tried to shrug it off and began to follow when someone ran up from behind._

_"Mr. Sephiroth!" shouted Augustus Fawlher. Sephiroth stopped and turned fluidly. "Please let me take one picture as a memento!"_

_Sephiroth stood there and looked at him._

_"Tifa," said Augustus, "can you ask him for me too?"_

_"Yes!" Tifa exclaimed, "Let's get the two SOLDIERs and their guide!"_

_I walked and stood by the gate to the Shinra mansion. Tifa stood between me and Sephiroth. This was the way the picture was to be taken, with me on the far left, Sephiroth on the right, and Tifa in the middle._

_I felt a great deal of anxiety rise up within me. Some great excitement about having my picture taken. I had been on many missions with Sephiroth, and numerous times Shinra newspapers were there to take a picture for the front page. Usually, however, they only wanted Sephiroth to stand in front of the slain beast or burning rebel base. I had never had my picture taken. And the papers would be damned if they had any MPs in the picture. Sephiroth often appeared to do the job alone, and in most cases, it would be that way._

_I had told Tifa, when I left, that I would be in the newspapers if I did well, and now, at the height of my career in SOLDIER, as Sephiroth's partner, I would finally get it, and she would too! I felt nervous as all hell._

_Augustus raised the camera to his face, a great clunky black box with a large reflective shell on the top, holding a big bulb inside. I felt butterflies in my stomach. My face would be on the wall of the general store for the rest of my life. I would be famous; the girls in my hometown would go to the store and see my smiling face beside Sephiroth's. I would be the hero who saved our town._

_Trying to calm the butterflies, I crossed my arms and smiled at the lens of the camera. Tifa fixed her hat to show her face properly, and Sephiroth simply stood, unamused._

_The button was pushed and the bulb flashed at me. Flash._

_I had seen the flash of a camera before, but it had never faced me. Everything, for a moment, went completely white. Augustus with the camera, town square behind him and the Nibel Valley in the distance all faded to white. I could no longer see Tifa or Sephiroth out of the corners of my eyes. I could not see anything._

_The blindness lasted for only a second, perhaps even less. But it scared me. I had never been blinded before, and I wasn't expecting anything of the sort. I was completely incapacitated, the light exploding out of the silver dome and consuming me. I felt helpless, like a prisoner to the light. Even now, bright lights somewhat frighten me. When I try to remember some things, and… my mind won't let me. I get that blinding light in front of my eyes, like I'm a prisoner to it._

_Slowly, the world faded back into existence. Everything still was quite bright and pulsing, but I saw Augustus putting away the camera and bowing with gratitude._

_"I'll give you each a copy when I get it developed!" he said. Augustus turned and ran back down the stairs and into town square. By the time he opened the general store's door, I had regained my full vision. I had never been so grateful, and exhaled after a held breath. Tifa noticed this._

_"Is something wrong?" Tifa asked._

_"No, nothing's wrong," I replied, and turned to the MPs, who were looking at me with curiosity. "Let's go," I said._

_Sephiroth had already turned and was walking past the Shinra mansion and towards the path to Mount Nibel. Tifa the guide was running after him. The MPs turned to follow and I was last._

_"Hey!" Mayor Lockheart called. I turned around._

_"Cloud Strife? Born and raised here."_

_"That's me," said I._

_Lockheart walked towards me, and I almost expected a well-wishing. But Lockheart simply said, "Stay away from my daughter," and walked back into town._

_Pfft. Yessir._


	38. Cloud's Recollection: The Mako Fountain

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Cloud's Recollection: The Mako Fountain I**

_There was a mako reactor built in Mount Nibel._

_The cold air of the Nibel Mountains, it was no different from Midgar. But the ground was rocky and hard to travel. Tifa and Sephiroth were in front, and me and the MPs were behind. After walking for a long while, they came to a bridge. The bridge was rickety and old, and Tifa stood at the edge of it while Sephiroth continued to walk up it._

_"It gets harder from here," she said, "follow me!"_

_Tifa went in front and I followed._

_Wait._

_No._

_That's not right._

_I couldn't have been behind Tifa, because when the bridge snapped, I was above her and grabbed her hand. Sorry, I must have gotten confused._

_"It gets harder from here," Tifa said, and I went before her. Probably to protect her._

_The bridge was supposed to take us to a ledge high above where we were, but when the five of us got on at the same time, the weight snapped the old ropes and the bridge began to fall apart. The individual boards broke off and fell into the chasm below. Tifa scrambled to get a hold of something, and I grabbed her hand from above. The bridge came apart too fast, however, and I suddenly found that both of us were now falling through the air. Sephiroth came down as well._

_In the few seconds that we fell, I watched Sephiroth on our descent. Even as we were falling towards uncertainty, Sephiroth seemed graceful doing it. His long hair went straight up behind him and so did his warriors cloak. I watched him fall until I noticed the ground rushing towards me. When I hit it, it was almost like I fell right through it, as my consciousness slipped away from me, and all of the lights went out._

_When I awoke, I awoke last. Sephiroth had fully healed everyone using magic, and Tifa, I and the MP sat on rocks. Looking up, they had fallen a long way; it was thanks to Sephiroth they seemed to be all in one piece._

…_there had been another MP with us. I've forgotten completely what happened to him. Our party had gone from five to four. Well, that is a mystery, isn't it? Although it is most likely the case that he fell to his doom and impaled himself on a large stone spike._

_The four remaining party members sat and we took a breather._

_"Everyone seems to be all right," Sephiroth said, "can we get back to where we were?"_

_"These caves intertwine," Tifa said, "like an anthill. I can still get us there, but we might be traveling for a while."_

_Walking up a stone path, we reached the cave mouth; it was big enough for us all to fit inside._

_The innards of the cave were brightly coloured. Greens and purples sparkled on the rocks._

_"What's this?" I asked, "A mysteriously coloured cave?"_

_"It must be the Mako energy," Sephiroth explained, "This Mountain is especially abundant in it. That's why the mako reactor was built here."_

_Moving through the caves, Tifa took us up and over and down a series of pathways, lit by reds and blues and yellows. They continued until the caves opened up._

_We had left the caves and were standing in an open area. The rock walls surrounded us in a circle and there was a cave entrance on the other side._

_The most interesting thing about the open area was what was in the middle. Roots from dead trees came out of the walls and gravitated to the center, where they merged into a large organic podium. On the podium was a large piece of shining rock, so shimmering that it appeared to glow white._

_"And what's this?" I asked._

_"A mako fountain," Sephiroth said, "it's a miracle of nature."_

_Approaching the mako fountain, I noticed that great streams of light were beaming straight up from the shimmering rock, like an upside down waterfall. The lights were the colors of the caves, and when I approached them, they did not waver, or move or disappear, they were unlike any rainbow I had ever seen. It was as if the air had been painted. They moved and changed by their own will, and with time. They were not a trick of light as I had thought. The lights danced for us._

_Tifa skipped along the roots and towards the stump. When she arrived, she examined the growth. Sephiroth and I approached it as well. It was not white after all, but in fact it changed color as constantly as the streams of light that it touched._

_"It's so beautiful," Tifa gaped, reaching out to touch it. She thought better of it at the last moment and pulled her hand away – as if the oils on her fingers would damage the stone. She began to look forlorn. "If the mako reactor continues to suck up the energy, this fountain will dry up, too."_

_I did not concern myself with that kind of attitude. It was that kind of speaking that sparked the uprising in Kalm, which had been just a bloodbath. It was also the attitude that started the war between Wutai and Shinra Inc. The war that Sephiroth had won without me._

_"Materia," Sephiroth said, and poked the coloured stone, "When you condense mako energy, materia is produced. It is very rare to see materia in its natural state."_

_I examined the natural materia. "Why is it," I asked, "that when you equip materia, you can use magic too?"_

_"You were in SOLDIER and didn't even know that?" Sephiroth asked. I shrugged, and, basking in the light of the mako fountain, Sephiroth explained._

_"The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the materia. The Ancients did not need materia to use magic; they spoke with the Planet and used its power freely. We are not so lucky, but members of SOLDIER like you and I can use magic when we have materia stones. We can do this because we've been dipped in liquid mako as you should recall. Because we've been fused with mako energy, we have the knowledge of materia – these crystals that hold the mysterious powers and knowledge of the Ancients. Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the land and the Planet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the Planet calling up magic."_

_"Magic," I said, somewhat bewildered, "a mysterious power."_

_Sephiroth's breathing became curt and his shoulders tensed. He was stifling a laugh._

_"Did I say something funny?" I asked._

_"A man once told me never to use an unscientific term such as 'mysterious power'. It shouldn't even be called magic"_

_"Who was that?" I asked._

_"That was Hojo, the head of the Shinra science department. An inexperienced man assigned to take over the work of a great scientist. He's a walking mass of complexes. I should warn you now – never get into a conversation with him because you'll walk away confused. Come on. Time's wasting."_

"_Yeah," I agreed, "We're not getting paid by the hour."_

_We entered the cave mouth at the other side, leaving the mako fountain unvisited for the rest of its days. It would dry up before anyone visited it again._


	39. Cloud's Recollection: Sephiroth's Mother

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Cloud's Recollection: Sephiroth's Mother I**

_The mako reactor sat in a small niche at the tallest point in the Nibel mountain regions. The tip of Mount Nibel looked like a great dragons head, and below it lay the rest of the region, a once-lush mountain paradise, now a rocky wasteland._

_We stood at the entrance to the reactor, somewhat less epic than the entrances to the later designs used in Midgar. This was simply a doorway, and we stood in front._

_"We finally made it!" Tifa said, "We sure took the long way, though!"_

_"Tifa, you wait here," I warned._

_"I'm going inside too," Tifa said, "I wanna see!"_

_"Only authorized people are allowed in," Sephiroth interjected, "This place is full of Shinra's industrial secrets."_

_"But-" she started._

_Sephiroth turned to the MP. "Take care of the lady."_

_The MP gave us a salute and Sephiroth and I walked through the door. The MP stood in front of the door and shook his head at Tifa. I seem to remember Tifa stomping her foot and saying, _

_"You'd better take real good care of me, then!" but we were already inside of the reactor, and the door was closing behind us._

_The inside of the reactor consisted of a long catwalk above a pool of mako waste which ran beneath the reactor and through the mountains to be dumped elsewhere. Soon, bodies, like the body of Tifa's father, were to be dumped away with the mako, for Sephiroth had precious few moments of sanity left. We walked past the catwalk and into the next room._

_The room was illuminated calmly with red lights. It consisted of a long stairway leading up to an iron door. On the way up, there were five small levels. On each of the levels there were metal pods, three on each side. The pods were enormous; we could easily fit inside them. Each pod had numerous pipes leading up to the room behind the iron door._

_Sephiroth was looking at the pods, examining the pipes along back._

_"This is the reason for the malfunction," Sephiroth said, "Cloud, would you close that valve over there?"_

_I felt embarrassed for not knowing where the valve was, and it took me a few moments to find it. The mako reactors in Midgar were much easier to navigate, and I had certainly never seen a room like this before. This room was strange, different. And believe me; I have a very good knowledge of reactors. _This_ chamber was so unconventional, so eerie. These pods didn't have any purpose to the functioning of the reactor, so why were they here? What did this broken valve have to do with unleashing terrible monsters?_

_"Why did it break, though?" Sephiroth murmured, "That is the question."_

_The one question I hadn't been asking. That was Sephiroth, though, he never questioned Shinra, and he only questioned those who opposed them. I followed orders, sure, and I suppose I followed Sephiroth blindly, but he trusted Shinra so much…_

_Moving to the front of the pods, Sephiroth examined a small glass aperture to look through. Standing on his toes, Sephiroth looked inside. He looked in for a good long while. He eventually lowered himself and spoke aloud, but not to me._

_"So," Sephiroth said, "Now I see, Hojo. But still, even doing this will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast."_

_"What?" That was all I could ask, although I should have figured it out on my own._

_Sephiroth's attention turned back to me, and he tapped lightly on the metal pod. "This is a system that condenses and freezes mako energy – that is, when it's working correctly. Now, what does mako energy become when it's further condensed?"_

_"Materia," I replied. "It becomes materia."_

_"That's right. These machines are contraptions that produce materia. That is, normally. But Hojo put something else in there. Take a look through the aperture."_

_Sephiroth had known the purpose of these pods. I had not. It was questionable how he had so much knowledge in this and I had but little. Producing materia is something Shinra does all the time, you can find materia most anywhere (but be damned if you know how to use it). They had machines in Midgar specifically designed for materia production. These pods must have been outdated long ago._

_I walked up and stood on my toes. I couldn't reach the aperture, for Sephiroth was a mite taller than I. I had to jump and grab the top of the pod. I lifted myself up and looked inside._

_I was looking at a face. It looked like a man, but the mako exposure had mutated him beyond any recognition. His face was contorted so much that the flesh around his mouth had burned off, and a skeleton's grin came through. The beast had no eyelids, and it looked directly out of the aperture and right at me._

_Frightened by the wrinkled, blue mutant, I let go of the pod and fell crashing to the floor._

_"What, what the hell is this?!" I shouted._

_"Normal members of SOLDIER are humans that have been showered with mako. But what are they? They've been exposed to a much higher degree of mako than you."_

_"Is this some kind of monster?"_

_"Exactly," Sephiroth said. "It is a monster. The same kind of monster as the ones attacking Nibelheim. And it's Hojo of Shinra Inc. that is producing these monsters. Mutated living organisms produced by mako energy. That's what these monsters really are."_

_"So Hojo is producing members of SOLDIER? Ones that are better than regular SOLDIERS… just like you?"_

_Even now, I wish I could have taken those words back. Until the day I die, I will regret those words, for as soon as I had uttered them, something inside Sephiroth snapped._

_It started slowly, like the sun dipping behind the trees. The light in Sephiroth's eyes began to fade, and all that was left was the unnatural glow of the Mako. His calm demeanour faded away and he began to tremble._

_Raising his hand, he watched it shake until his face contorted and he clutched his forehead, as if trying to squeeze out a bad headache._

_"Sephiroth?" I asked._

_"N—no..." Sephiroth stumbled. His voice was no longer the collected voice of a war veteran, but that of a scared child. "…was I?"_

_He jerked upright and unsheathed his incredibly long, thin masamune sword. "Was I?!" he shouted, raising his sword high into the air. I backed up as Sephiroth brought the blade down onto the pod. It dented the metal with a deafening clank. Bringing the sword back, Sephiroth swung it around to hit another pod._

_"Was I created this way too?!" he screamed, attacking the pods furiously. "Am I the same as all these monsters?!"_

_"Sephiroth, that's ridiculous!"_

_"Is it?!" Sephiroth spat, "Look up there, the iron door. What does it say above?"_

_I looked up to the top of the stairs. Above the iron door, on a wooden plaque, the letters were carved neatly._

_J-E-N-O-V-A._

_"You saw it," Sephiroth said, "the name of my mother! All of these, they're all humans!"_

_"Human? No way!"_

_Sephiroth let the tip of his blade lower to touch the ground and he turned to me, to his long time partner._

_"I've always felt," he said, "since I was small, that I was different. But... but not like this."_

_Am I… human?_

_We returned to Nibelheim. Sephiroth said nothing on the way back. Tifa remembered a shorter route and we took it, avoiding the mako fountain. When we got back, Sephiroth confined himself at the inn. Before the sun set, he had disappeared._

_The armoured buggy was still parked outside of town; he could not have left us at Nibelheim. He just disappeared. The MP and I searched until the late hours, but there was no sign of him._

_The next morning the search continued, and I was hesitant to enter the Shinra mansion. But we had looked everywhere else; the only option left was to investigate the mansion, or to head back into the mountains._

_Upon opening the mansion doors, the smell hit me like a wall of bricks. It was a stale, decrepit smell, like a body in the summer sun. Damp now from the storm, and sodden through._

_The inside was just as dead as the outside. After twenty years, plants had attempted to grow through the floorboards but died on the way through. The wood was old and warped. When I entered, he faced a huge Grand Staircase that I did not trust in the least. I walked through the great hall, surprised the chandelier still hung from the ceiling. When I reached the stair, I shook the railing. It seemed sturdy enough to support me despite the rotting balustrades, and I held it as I carefully treaded up, testing every stair before putting my full weight on it._

_The smell made me almost gag, less than before, I thought, either that or I was just getting used to it more._

_I reached the top of the first staircase and was on a platform, with the choice of the left staircase or the right staircase. I chose the right one, as I was clutching onto the same railing, so I went right. I arrived at the top and was surprised to find that the MP was already seated inside the master bedroom._

_"I saw Sephiroth enter this room," said the MP, "but he's not here now."_

_The mansion's enormous chimneystack passed through the master bedroom, and it was made of stone. I inspected it, hoping to find a secret door. I was being whimsical, for the most part, but surely enough, there was a crack in the stone, and when I pushed on it, it swung open. It was truly a door._

_"My stars!" exclaimed the MP._

"_I really wasn't expecting to find anything," I admitted with a sheepish grin, "Maybe Sephiroth went down here? You stay here—" What the hell was that MPs name?_

_Walking through the door, I found myself inside the very large chimneystack, which was not a chimneystack at all. The winding stair led all the way down to underneath the house. These stairs had no railings, and they were very thin. I ran my hand along the wall as he descended._

_When I reached the bottom, my feet touched soft dirt. There was a cave dug underneath the mansion, and it was dark as night down here. The only light was above, where I looked beyond the stairs and out the chimneystack into the sky._

_Taking my first step into the darkness of the tunnel, I noticed a sliver of artificial light in the distance. I began to walk towards it with more confidence now, the silence growing._

_I was surrounded by darkness, my steps growing quicker as I moved towards the sliver of light. I don't like bright lights, but I'm not a fan of complete blackness either. I like being able to see._

_The sliver was the light coming from a door ajar, and I pushed it open._

_I was in a library, a rather large one at that. It must've been the secret archives of Shinra Incorporated, hidden underneath the mansion, probably untouched since the birth of Midgar. Sephiroth stood inside, he had plucked a book off of a shelf and was flipping through it, reading aloud. "...An organism that was apparently dead, was found in a two thousand year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova..."_

_I entered the room, leaving the door wide open. Sephiroth read off dates and their corresponding events._

_"...Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient..."_

_"...Jenova Project approved. The use of mako reactor one approved..."_

_Dropping the book on the ground, Sephiroth wandered further into the library taking no notice of me. I followed him through a corridor between shelves, flanked by books from floor to ceiling. _

_"My mother's name is Jenova," he said to himself, "Jenova Project. Is this just a coincidence? Oh, Professor Gast. Why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you die?"_

_"Sephiroth?" I was as apprehensive as the first time we met. We had reverted back to near strangers._

_"Leave me in peace," Sephiroth didn't take his nose out of the book. My friend. He was going through a very tough time, I understood that. I nodded and left the Shinra mansion._

_The buggy was gone. Me and the MP found ourselves stuck in town. Shinra Incorporated had only paid for two days at the Nibelheim Inn. We recited to sleeping in the Shinra mansion. It was the easiest way to keep informed about Sephiroth's whereabouts. I assumed he would leave the library and sleep somewhere. The MP slept in the bedroom next to the secret entranceway, and I had found a comfortable window seat in the west wing. It was generally devoid of spiders and critters, so I made that my home for one week._

_There was an old bell tower in town, inside of a school. When the bell went off at noon the next day, I was awoken with a start. I remembered the bell tower and its function, but I don't recall hearing the bell as a child._

_I got up off my window seat, my neck sore as the second of twelve gongs stirred the sleep away from my eyes. I went down the winding stairs in the secret passageway, to the gloom and darkness of the tunnel and I crept up to the sliver of golden candlelight._

"_Leave me in peace."_

_Every day, the bell tower would rouse me from slumber in the west wing at noon, and I would return to Sephiroth's crypt. I would approach the door at the end of the tunnel, and before knocking every time, Sephiroth would somehow feel my presence, and say:_

_"Cloud, go away. Leave me in peace."_

_It felt like every time he said that, we were drifting further and further apart. What was he reading down there that caused our friendship to end? What drove him to madness? Sephiroth never left the library. He continued to read as if he was possessed by something, and not once did the light in the basement go out._

_A week passed. The gong of the bell became a symbol of my discontent. The sound of twelve ominous clangs and the putrid, rancid smell of the mansion made my days a living nightmare, separated from my best friend, locked with an MP in the dank corner of Nibelheim._

_I woke up on my window seat one morning before the noon chime of the bell tower, glad for once that the repetition was over. Today just might be different. It was January 4th. That's funny, I remember the date so perfectly, but other, possibly more important things, they evade me._

_Perhaps I read the date so often in the papers. This day would go down in history._

_I left my window seat and walked down into the basement. I braved the tunnel, confident now of where the stones were. I wasn't afraid of the dark anymore. It became part of my dreary, repetitive life. Dark like the days in Midgar and warm like the womb. It was the sliver of light that I feared at the end of the tunnel, the world beyond what I knew. What would happen when the door opened. Fear of the terrible world I would get born into._

_I approached the sliver in the doorway, expecting to hear, "Cloud, leave me in peace." The voice of my dear friend Sephiroth._

_But no such announcement came. Instead, listening in, I could hear the faint sound of laughter._

_This was not an ordinary Sephiroth laugh. This was almost a cackle, something I had seen junkies do when they spouted about the end of the world. I stood in the darkness for a moment longer, before finding the strength to push the door open and enter the library, and begin the rest of my life. The light hit me and I blinked away its sudden stabbing._

_The shelves were mostly empty. A few books had been placed back on the shelves, but most of them were in piles on the floor. Stepping over them, I looked around for Sephiroth._

_The laughter came from the corridor. I stepped on books going further into the library._

_Sephiroth was seated at the other end of a desk, rows of empty shelves behind him. In his hand, he cradled a small flame. He moved his hand around fluidly, and the flame danced above his fingertips. Upon seeing this, he cackled to himself and the flame grew with the force of his bellows._

_I stepped on a particularly large book, breaking its spine. The small noise made Sephiroth grab the flame out and look at the intruder._

_"Who is it?!" he shot an abrupt glace up from his flame. Upon seeing me, he just leaned back, "Humph. Traitor."_

_"Traitor?"_

_"You ignorant traitor," Sephiroth repeated angrily, standing up, "I'll tell you."_

_He faced the wall and with a wave of his hand, books began to float off of the ground and place themselves back on the shelf. As the books rose from the ground to fly towards their respective spots in the library, I almost dropped my jaw._

_Surely Sephiroth's power had increased exponentially since we arrived here. Every book in the library was now afloat in the air, each with its own destination._

_"The Planet originally belonged to the Cetra," Sephiroth said, surrounded by floating books. He seemed unaffected by it, as if this great magical conjuring was taking no effort at all, "Cetra was an itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the soil of the Planet, and then move on. At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But, those that disliked the journey appeared. Those who stopped their migrations built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the Planet had made without giving one _whit _in return! Those are your ancestors."_

_"Sephiroth—" I started._

_"Long ago," Sephiroth continued as the last of the books reached the shelves, "disaster struck this Planet. Your ancestors escaped. They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to increase. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."_

_"What does this all have to do with you?" I asked._

_"Don't you get it?!" Sephiroth shouted, and the force of his fury sent a gust of wind past me. "An Ancient named Jenova was found in the geological stratum of two thousand years ago. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Cetra. Those who did not need the power of materia, those who _were_ the power of materia!"_

_Then, after a beat, "I am the one that was produced."_

_"P, produced?!" I gasped._

_"Yes," Sephiroth confirmed, the calmness returning to his voice for a second as the library returned to its normal state. "Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me."_

_It couldn't be true, it just couldn't. Sephiroth was my friend. The general who had lead Shinra to victory in Wutai, who had brought down the Kalm resistance faction, who had battled giant serpents and lived, the most powerful warrior in the history of the Planet! And yet, as human as I could ever be, as kind and honourable and as normal as any man. How could he be the fabrication of a scientific experiment?! I did not understand!_

_Walking past me, Sephiroth moved down the corridor. His gait had changed. He still moved like water through oil, but he moved lightly, on his toes. His arms took great swings as he strode. And he strode right down the corridor._

_"How… how did he?" I asked. Sephiroth stopped and remained motionless at the end of the corridor. He said nothing._

_"Sephiroth?" I asked._

_"Out of my way!" Sephiroth announced, as the first gong of the bell tower echoed through the crypt. "I'm going to see my mother!"_


	40. Cloud's Recollection: Nemesis II

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Cloud's Recollection: Nemesis II**

_Sephiroth turned the corner and was gone. I gave chase, but it was as if he had disappeared down the corridor faster than the human eye. So I attempted to follow. By the second chime of the bell tower I was in the chimneystack, bolting up the winding stairs. As the clanging echoed around the stone cylinder, the noon sky darkened, as if another great rain storm was coming to us._

_I burst from the inside of the secret passageway and ran through the mansion as a soft roaring rose from outside. I threw open the doors._

_Nibelheim was ablaze. As I ran out of the mansion's great front doors, an enormous flame materialized in the dead thorns in the garden. The heat of the explosion knocked me back into the mansion, and the great sword on my back snapped out of its magnetic hold, grazing the skin of my right calf._

_Springing back onto my feet, I ran out to the top of the staircase, unflinching from the pain in my calf._

_Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen, but all over the town I could see what was in his wake. Massive fireballs rose from the ground and twirled into the air, crashing through the rooftops to burn the civilians inside._

_"Hey!" cried Zangan, who was waving to me from town square, "It's you! You're still sane, right?"_

_I could barely hear over the roar of the fire, but I understood enough to nod._

_"Then come over here and help me!"_

_Zangan, seemingly unscathed by the flames, was crouching over a townsperson._

"_Tifa…" muttered the townsperson, "Tifa…" _

_Sephiroth's massive fire summoning grew stronger as the steps to the Shinra mansion went up in flames, and I had to leap from the top to the bottom to avoid getting burned. I landed at the bottom, safely in town square, but the heat was unbearable, and it made my every breath a throbbing effort._

_The MP was lying by the water tower. He didn't seem dead, he was moving slightly. Twitching. Not critical, just a little bruised up, but his eyes were wide and he was muttering the name of Sephiroth repeatedly._

_"Sephiroth did it," Zangan shouted, as if it needed to be said, "They call him a hero but he's nothing but a monster, a homicidal maniac!"_

_I was torn then. My first impulse was to defend my friend. Sephiroth was caring, and strong and a shining beacon of Shinra's glory, their might. But Sephiroth was the only one who could have done this._

"_I'll check to general store and the west. You, check the east houses!" Zangan shouted._

_Immediately, I ran into the house adjacent to Town Square. It was the house of my childhood. Breaking through the blackened doorway, I found myself in the front hallway, and smoke filled the house. Sephiroth… couldn't have burned down my house…_

_Taking a deep breath, I ran inside, dodging falling banisters and pieces of the ceiling that crashed down upon me._

_Running into the living room, I saw Mom, slumped in her large chair. I ran to her, grabbing her wrist. I stayed with her, looking upon her still face until I exhaled and began to cough. Mom… you were so strong… I hope you went peacefully. I had to go though… I was dying myself; the smoke was too much. Running back out of the house, I made it outside before the roof collapsed under the weight of the next ball of fire that crashed into it._

_Coughing, I filled my lungs with oxygen, but it was hot and it burned my muscles. I lay in town square, coughing but the fire was consuming me._

_"Sephiroth!" I shouted loud enough to hear myself over the flames, "This is too terrible!"_

_Sephiroth had done this. It was no other, no mutant, no wolves, no Shinra. It was Sephiroth, acting against everything he had stood for. It was not the same Sephiroth I had arrived with. He had turned mad, into what Zangan had said, a homicidal maniac, a monster._

_Hearing a commotion from above, I turned to look. Augustus ran towards Sephiroth, who was walking through the flames. Wielding his long sword effortlessly, Sephiroth cut Augustus at the waist and sent the two separate parts tumbling down the stair with a blast of fire._

_From the waist up, Augustus landed at my crawling position. His face was curled back into a frozen scream, and still clutched in his hands were five copies of the photograph he had taken._

_They were burning fast, and all that remained of the picture were Tifa and Sephiroth, and I had been erased from the photograph forever. The fire consumed the rest of the picture, the flames swallowing Tifa and Sephiroth. _

_Our friendship had died, and I glared up towards the top of the town staircase._

_The flames grew higher, as Nibelheim's last standing houses collapsed. Sephiroth stood in the middle of the flames, but they did not seem to touch him. It was he who was wielding this destruction. The power he had used to protect this town had now become its demise, and he stood at the very top, smirking at me. His glowing green eyes pierced his partner, but I suddenly felt I had the strength to rise._

_Turning slowly, Sephiroth faced the wall of fire before him. His long white locks flew behind him as he stepped into the fire, the black silhouette becoming the very fire itself as he passed through._

_I ran up the stairs and jumped into the fire after him._

_Running as fast as he could, I chased a memory through the Nibel mountains. When I reached the reactor, I bolted through the door and into the main passageway._

_Tifa knelt over the body of a man. A long sword projected out of his back straight up into the air. The sword was thin and splattered with blood. Blood dripped off the platform they were on and into the mako pool below._

_"Papa?" Tifa shook the body. The realization that he was dead dawned on Tifa and her eyes grew dark. _

_"Sephiroth?" she asked the corpse as her head tilted to the ceiling, "Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he?!"_

_She stood up and grabbed the hilt of the sword as I ran down the walkway toward her._

_"Sephiroth... SOLDIER... Mako Reactors... Shinra... Everything!" She pulled the sword out of her father's back, his body falling lifeless into the Mako Waste below. The sword was much too big and heavy for her to handle. She turned towards the doorway in front of her, ignoring me behind her._

_"I hate them all!" she shouted, and ran through the doorway into the light. As her silhouette gave way to the light, it blinded me and he was consumed by it._

_Light – such a bad sign. The horrible whiteness of it. When I try to remember how exactly I got into the next room, I get that flashing in front of my eyes. The next thing I remember, I stood among the pods, and Tifa was running up the stairs ahead of me. Sephiroth stood at the top, pressing his hands on the iron door that led to Jenova's chamber._

_"Mother, I'm here to see you. Please, open this door!" Sephiroth cackled._

_"How could you do that to Papa, and all the townspeople?!" Tifa yelled, prompting Sephiroth to turn around. She held his sword, barely lifting it. With the last of her strength, she raised it above her head and brought it down on Sephiroth, who grabbed the blade with his hand and stopped it inches before it collided with his face. Tifa became stunned, and in that Moment, Sephiroth overpowered her, and holding the blade he thrust the sword to the side, pulling it out of Tifa's hands. Catching the hilt, he brought it down on his attacker, from the left shoulder he cut her all the way down to her right thigh._

_From the impact, Tifa's body flew back off the top of the staircase and the blood from her open wound stayed suspended in the air as she fell back and down the staircase._

_At that Moment, I felt the universe move slower than usual. Tifa's speckles of blood trailed away from her body and hung suspended in the air as she free fell towards the bottom of the staircase. Sephiroth, letting the tip of his blade drop to the ground, looked up through his ghostly white bangs and peered not at Tifa, but straight at me._

_I had witnessed the massacre of my entire hometown, and as Tifa's limp body hit the stairs, time sped up as my anger grew into a crescendo. She tumbled past the many rows of pods to land at my feet, blood spilling over the metal, washing over my boot. Tifa's face came to a stop a few centimetres from my foot. Her face was clenched in pain, but she was still alive, for now. Sephiroth, high above, turned and knocked on Jenova's door._

_There was a loud clicking from within the Jenova chamber and the iron door swung slowly open, Sephiroth pranced inside._

_I had made a promise to Tifa. A promise. Sephiroth had taken that, taken her away from me. Placing one hand under her upper back and the other behind her knees, I picked her up slowly and walked her to a safe area underneath the pods, fixing her position to keep bleeding to a minimum. It showed no signs on bleeding, but I could do nothing for her now. Only Sephiroth had the power to cure, for he had saved me from near-death many times._

_"You promised..." Tifa said, a small drip of blood escaping from the corner of her mouth and running down to her chin, "you promised... that you would come..."_

_She was murmuring, but her mind was far off. She was fading in and out of consciousness. I had to stop Sephiroth and get her to safety. Quickly._

_"I won't leave you," I said, and placed a small kiss on her forehead. Standing up, I moved slowly up the staircase towards the open Jenova Chamber._

_The inside of the chamber contained very little walking space, perhaps a square metre at most. Sephiroth stood just inside the door, facing a large winding tube filled with a red liquid that ran through the tube and down into the floor to be distributed to the pods._

_It was blood, sent to fuel Hojo's horrible creations._

_The blood was coming from a large statue made of metal. Behind it was a large test tube, but the statue blocked all view of what was inside._

_The statue itself was a woman, spread as if she had been crucified. However, instead of arms, out of her shoulders grew two large metal wings. Each wing was a series of large tubes and wires that connected to the chamber walls, which themselves were filled with pipes and flashing buttons._

_At first, I thought the metal statue was Jenova, and it seemed as if Sephiroth did too. He spoke to the metal statue, "Mother, let's take the Planet back together. I've thought of a great idea. Let's go to the Promised Land!"_

_"Sephiroth!" I shouted, entering the chamber and standing right behind him, "My family! My hometown! How could you do this to them?!"_

_Sephiroth began to laugh, not turning to face his old friend, "They've come again, Mother!" he said to the statue. Still without turning, he spoke again, calmly, this time to me, "with her superior power, knowledge and magic, Mother was destined to become the ruler of this Planet!"_

_Suddenly, Sephiroth seemed taller than he had used to be. I stepped back from Sephiroth, who seemed to be growing at a rapid rate. As I stepped back, I saw that Sephiroth wasn't growing at all._

_He was floating. _

_His feet dangled limply a few centimetres off the ground. His arms were spread wide and he cackled, rising up more into the air. He began to float above the pipe towards the statue._

_"But they..." he continued, talking to the statue again, rising up and up towards it, "those worthless creatures. They are stealing the Planet from Mother."_

_When he arrived, he reached up to touch it's face, as if to stroke it, "but now I'm here with you," he said, "so don't worry."_

_Touching the metal, Sephiroth ran his black glove down its cheek. Suddenly, he reached underneath the wings and violently pulled the statue out of place. Doing so snapped many wires, sending bursts of electricity and sparks all around the room. As he threw the statue to the side, I saw that it was bleeding out of its hollow eyes and mouth. Blood ran through the statue, blood from what, though?_

_Sephiroth looked upon the large tube that the statue had been guarding. Inside, in the glowing liquid mako was Jenova, suspended. Her shrivelled blue figure hung, suspended with needles, and out of her stomach, a great pipe led down into the mutant chamber, the pipe was filled with her cells. Upon her forehead was a slave crown that tied her to Shinra's bidding - that made the Cetra dormant while she was pierced with numerous probes all over her wrinkled naked body. Probes that collected her cells and sent them down below._

_This was the only time I would ever see her head, and although I did not know that at the time, I still remember looking at it for a long time._

_Jenova's head had a great black nothingness where there should've been eyes, and still, as I stared at that blackness, it almost seemed as if I was staring at a blinding light, for that was the sight of true nothingness. White strands of hair hung all about the slave crown, and upon her face was a look of pure contentment. Sephiroth stroked the glass once more._

_Drawing my sword, I yelled up at Sephiroth, "What about my sadness? My family, my friends? The sadness of having my hometown taken away from me?! It's the same as your sadness!"_

_Sephiroth began to laugh again, and for once, turned to face me. He pivoted in midair, looming high above and staring down at me. "My sadness?" Sephiroth echoed with a snigger, "What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet. I have orders to take the Planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. In my veins courses the blood of the ancients. I am the rightful heir to this planet. What should I be sad about?"_

_"Sephiroth," I wept quietly, more to myself than to my enemy, "...I trusted you..."_

_Looking up at Sephiroth, who had now drawn his sword slowly, I saw in his eyes not a glimmer of the mercy, the love or the compassion that Sephiroth had once had. My friend was dead. In his place was an absolute maniac, his face a brilliant white, as white as the flash of the camera, and open with a lunatic's grin._

_"No!" I shouted at Sephiroth. "You're not the Sephiroth I used to know!"_

_Sephiroth suddenly descended quickly down the tube and straight towards me. Running along the steep angle of the tube, I leapt to meet his blade—_

_And that's the end of my story..._


	41. Book 2: Ahead, On Our Way

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 9**

**Ahead on our Way**

"…and that's the end of my story."

Barret Wallace paced around the party suite at the Kalm Inn, his left arm crossed with the artificial gatling gun grafted to his right arm. With each step he took, his boots smacked the floor angrily, filling the room with a dramatic metronome of clumping. This was partly due to his large boots, and it was partly due to his monstrous size. Additionally, of course, he was irate. This was not a rarity for him, quite the opposite. In recent times, and with increasing frequency, the cause of his discontent was Cloud Strife.

The other four of his team members sat at numerous locations around the room. Aeris lay on the same bed that Cloud sat on while he had recounted his story. Tifa sat on the next bed – she had been listening intently, as if she had never heard that story before (Tifa had been upset when Cloud had told her about his adventures inside of her room, with the letter, and the underwear drawer; but Cloud felt it was necessary to be as honest as possible with his recollection. The only piece of his memory that he did not divulge to the party was the reunion with his mother, on the grounds of it being irrelevant. Oddly enough, two months from now he would find necessity in retelling it; however, by then the circumstances of his maternal reunion would have been altered significantly). Red XIII, the beast with fire-red fur lay on the ground with his one remaining eye wide open.

There was a moment of silence when they imagined what would come next. Cloud had just finished telling them how Sephiroth had released Jenova from her slave-crown and announced his mission to take the Promised Land, and the Cloud ran to meet him in battle, and just before their swords clashed, he stopped.

"Wait a damn minute!" Barret shouted, "That's it? No more?!"

Cloud thought for a moment, but in trying, his face twitched in pain. "I don't remember."

"What happened to Sephiroth?" Aeris asked.

"In terms of skill, I couldn't have killed him," Cloud replied.

"Official reports stated that Sephiroth was killed," Tifa said, "it was in the newspaper. But Shinra Inc. owns the newspapers, so I can't rely on that."

"I want to know the truth," Cloud agreed, "I want to know what happened more than any of you. I challenged Sephiroth and lived. Why didn't he kill me?"

"I'm alive, too," Tifa confirmed, but her mind was somewhere else.

'_You want to know the truth, Cloud?'_ she thought, _'I'll never tell you.'_

Aeris sat up from her lying position and sat beside Cloud, "A lot of this doesn't make any sense. What about Jenova? She was in the Shinra building, right?"

"Jenova was shipped to the Shinra building in Midgar after Nibelheim burned down. But it seems that someone had taken her out and carried her away."

"Sephiroth?" Aeris asked.

"Damn!" Barret bellowed, stomping his foot, "None of this makes any sense! I'm goin', goin', gone! An' I'm leavin' the thinkin' to you! But are you just gonna stand there while Sephiroth heads for the Promised Land? I ain't letting Sephiroth or no Shinra get to no Promised Land. If they do, then we're all screwed. Y'know what I'm sayin'?"

Cloud shrugged coldly in response. "Fine, that's good enough!" Barret began downstairs.

"Cloud..?" Tifa asked quietly, unsure of her question. "When Sephiroth stabbed me, how bad was I?"

"I thought you were a goner," Cloud said, "I was so sad."

Tifa said nothing. She held her thoughts inside.

"I—" Aeris started. When Cloud looked at her, she thought about it, and rephrased her next sentence, "The Ancients, Cetra... Jenova, Sephiroth and myself..."

"Let's go, Barret's waiting," Tifa said, cutting off Aeris' thought. Standing up, she walked down the stairs after Barret. Aeris stood up and Cloud followed her. He admitted to himself, that since they met in her church he had taken quite a liking to Aeris. As he followed her down the stairs, he remembered how she grew flowers in the deadest of places, and it was only now that he realized why. Aeris was an Ancient, the last of her kind. Elmyra was not her real mother. She was still a mystery to him.

Red XIII, who was by himself in the large suite, closed his one remaining eye and thought, _'What a fascinating story.'_

* * *

Kalm was a town of blues. Painted cobblestone, stucco and clothing gave the very air a azure hue, and it made Cloud's faded dungarees look positively purple in comparison. Tifa left him to wander, and ambled by herself. She needed time to settle after his story. There was something so strange about the way he told it. He oscillated between third and first person, he had ticks in his memory that made his and her recollections differ at so many points she couldn't count them all. She could pick his brain forever if she wanted to, but she assumed it would drive her mad.

She saw Barret going through a blue door and into a house. That seemed to be becoming a habit among their party of five, forgetting to knock, disturbing strangers.

Killing thousands of innocent people.

She followed him into the front hall to find him sitting in the small kitchen across from a well-to-do woman in a great blue apron. The woman was smiling at Barret as if he were her kin, but upon her entrance the woman glared out at Tifa.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I beg your pardon?"

Barret waved his hand at the woman, gesturing towards Tifa, "She's my good friend. Tifa, thissus Chiara, we go way back."

"Oh," Chiara said, "any friend of Barret's is a friend of mine. Please come sit."

Tifa, having little idea of what she had gotten herself into, approached the table with caution and sat.

"Tell me, Barret," Chiara smiled, "How is little Marlene? Is she here with you?"

"Marlene is in Midgar," Barret said, "she'll be safe there."

"You're not getting into trouble, are you?"

Barret said nothing; he only looked across the table. Chiara read into this.

"So…" she said, "You're Barret the Blackhearted. I must say, it's a catchier last name than Wallace."

"Don't blame me, blame the Shinra." Barret sighed.

"Yes, well, you can blame them for a lot of things these days." Chiara began, "Although god help you if you do. You're lucky that they haven't released a description yet. Just a name, and the stories to go with it. After you left Gongaga, I traveled here to Kalm, but the town isn't as glamorous as one would hope."

Tifa nodded. She knew of Kalm's history. After the mako reactor was installed, monsters began attacking the mythril miners. The mines were abandoned, Kalm's main export became liquor. It also became the local pastime.

"Are you still inventing?" Barret asked.

"Nothing like gun-arms anymore," Chiara laughed, "although with your fame and success I should have tried to make a profit with it. No, now I'm on to communications."

She stood, adjusting the ribbon in her hair and moved over to the oak cabinet. Tifa was relieved at the cabinet's natural oak colouring, being quite sick of the colour blue.

"I've been handmaking maps," she explained, unhooking the latch on the cabinet, "And recently I've been selling Shinra these things."

The doors swung open revealing shelves upon shelves of what appeared to be black bricks. "I call them the 'Personal Handheld System' or the PHS. I've yet to rename them so that they have a proper acronym, but I'm an inventor, not a marketer."

"Wow," Tifa commented, "You've sure made a lot."

"Yes, Shinra Inc. has invested in them somewhat, but they were really intended for the miners. I was hoping that it would motivate people in this town to keep working, but the way the animals are acting now, no one in the town wants to return to the mines."

"Animals?" Tifa asked. "You mean monsters."

"Well, animals is a mood point," Chiara smiled bitterly. "Most people just call anything that isn't a human a monster nowadays; sometimes 'human' is a blurred line as well."

The kettle on the stove whistled, and Chiara grabbed the pot. "Would you like some tea, Tifa?"

"Yes please."

"Yes, well," Chiara puttered about the kitchen, fetching saucers and cups for the three of them, "I wonder if humans have gone too far, if we're any different from monsters – a by-product of our world's miserable state. Sometimes I envy people on the top plate. Sugar or cream?"

"Two lumps, please," Barret asked politely.

"Of course," Chiara dropped them in. A single drop of Barret's tea landed on the table and she fetched a towel to wipe it. "I would rather face pain than be ignorant. Humans have that ability as well. What fascinating creatures."

"The ability to choose right from wrong is a human choice," Tifa argued. "Monsters are a result of their heredity and environment. The ability to see good within others, and more importantly, good within yourself, is something monsters… animals… don't have."

"Indeed," Chiara smiled, "But how many of us make that choice in the end? Cream or sugar, dear?"

"No, thank you."

"For instance, I helped design a weapon that has no doubt killed dozens of law officials, and aided in the destruction of two reactors, two cities and a political assassination, if all accusations against Barret the Blackhearted are just." she spoke without judgement, as if it were a passing fancy.

"I only got one hand to be bloodied," Barret said. "The rest of it lands on Shinra's hand, an' good riddance t'him."

"These Personal Handheld Systems…" Tifa changed the grim subject. "Are they for sale?"

"Barret is an old friend," Chiara said. "You said you had five traveling with you?"

"Well," Barret explained, "We only need four, really. One of us won't be stayin' long, an' he can't exactly use tools, y'know?"

"More co-op missions?" she asked, uninterested in deciphering Barret's description of Red XIII.

"Actually," Tifa confessed, lifting the cup to her face, "We're looking for someone."

"It's not that fellow who looks like Sephiroth, is it? …_Oh_ dear, you've gotten tea all over your lap! Let me fetch a towel."

* * *

While walking around the town (looking for a potion shop if there was one) Cloud overheard a few men talking.

"I heard that President Shinra was killed, and that his son Rufus was badly injured!" said the man in the orange jacket.

"I read that in the newspaper," said the man in the red jacket, "it was AVALANCHE that did it… you know, those guys that bombed the two reactors?"

"Didn't they also completely destroy Sector 7?"

"Man, those guys are evil..."

Cloud would have to get used to slander like that. After all, the list was daunting to be sure. The incorrect addition of the Sector 7 massacre stung, but Cloud anticipated AVALANCHE getting blamed for worse things in the future. For a moment, he had to remind himself that he was now the leader of AVALANCHE – not just an associate, or a hired blade. When Rufus recovered, he might divulge their appearances, and then walking around freely would be a hard thing to do. He figured Wedge would have gotten a kick out of the fame. He personally did not.

Cloud continued walking until he reached the potion shop, where he purchased a potion and clipped it to his belt. His comrades were standing at the edge of the town, each fully equipped. The three humans and the beast looked out onto the field.

"What can you gather?" Cloud asked.

"A man in a black cloak was seen passing by towards the Grasslands," Tifa said. "Apparently he had a large sword."

Cloud never doubted Tifa's gift for getting information out of people.

"That must be Sephiroth. Any idea what's down there?"

"The mythril mine passes through the mountains," Aeris said. "Other than that, it's all farmland."

"That's right."

Cloud smiled at Aeris, and she smiled back. "I'll be glad once we're out of the Wastelands."

"Well then, let's get going. Ahead on our way."

"Cloud," Barret said, walking towards the former mercenary, "I bought us all something."

He placed a large black block in Cloud's hands, and then walked around and gave the girls one. Red XIII only had paws, and could not hold it.

Cloud examined it. It had a small antenna protruding from the top, and a keypad on its surface. "It's called a PHS," Barret said. "With these, we can all communicate with each other. I thought it would be good in case we get separated. 'Course, Shinra don't got business south of here, so we can travel together."

Cloud nodded, and they walked south from Kalm towards the fields.

The land was scorched and drained of life, and they looked west at Midgar. The land withered further before the metropolis rose out of the ground. "Born from the Planet itself," was the slogan that drew folks to it. The advertisements failed to mention that in order for Midgar to live, the Planet had to die.

The storm of Midgar was alit with green embers above the city, but beyond the cylindrical city it became dark and grey, never raining or storming, just causing gloom over the Wastelands.

They looked over the barren earth. The Wastelands had a pension for turning the mind sour, and animals became monsters. They had been fortunate in their uneventful trip from Midgar to Kalm, a group of five dangerous looking individuals was not an easy target for a thief or two. They had made it out of the Wastelands unscathed, but Cloud knew that the world beyond wasn't exactly forgiving either.

Approaching a mountain pass, the storm faded away. Sunlight poured on their faces. Tifa squinted; she was not used to this kind of light. Aside from Aeris, she had been in Midgar the longest, nearly five years now, since the Nibelheim Incident. She was used to the slums, the artificial lights hanging over the city, emulating, at best, dim moonlight. Aeris seemed unperturbed by the brightness.

She looked up now and saw great blue skies, white billowing clouds. In the distance, they saw Midgar, mere kilometres away, eating up the day with it's pollution. Tifa was the first to turn her head away, looking to the south.

South of Kalm, the valley passed in between two mountain ranges, and this was called the Bottleneck Pass, the unofficial border between the Wastelands and the Grasslands. "Perfunctory names," Zangan had taught her, "Whoever drew the map sure wasn't creative, Midgar's Sectors, the Waste, Grass, and Woodlands – a big wig at Shinra made it, someone without pizzazz. Even our world is simply called 'the Planet.'"

Zangan… What had happened to him? Had he survived the fires of Nibelheim? Was he nomadically wandering, still teaching young students? Tifa's memory after Sephiroth's near-fatal blow is hazy at best. When she came to, she was already a bartender at Seventh Heaven, nearly two years later, serving drinks and doing what else she could for the bar-owner, Dane, to make some money. Everyone needs to get by, she reminded herself. Keep your skirt short, your legs long, looking humble. Invite danger to stay in practice. Steal, kill, and live in the slums.

She hated that Seventh Heaven was gone, but a new life awaited her beyond the Bottleneck Pass.

Years ago, the pass was a busy through-way for miners, but now it was abandoned, and the grass was dying.

Moving into the pass, Aeris kept close to Cloud. "The further we get away from the cities," she said, "the stranger I feel."

"What do you mean?" Cloud walked closer to her, looking at his feet as he treaded.

"The Planet. I feel its presence. In Midgar, it felt dead – dying. Its voice was blocked by the people, and the cars, and the noise. But out here, I feel it, breathing life into everything. I wonder if Sephiroth feels it too."

Cloud wondered as well, but he didn't feel any different than he did in Midgar.

"Cloud," Aeris walked closer to him. He continued walking, but her head was in the sky, "I was wondering."

"Oh yeah? Wondering what?"

She giggled. "Are you a cirrus, or a cumulus?"

* * *

It was midday now. They would need to find a place to rest for the night soon. Tifa held a dog eared, hand-drawn map that Chiara had given to her as a parting gift. It was vague, and she couldn't pinpoint their location, the bottleneck pass was unlabeled, simply where the mountains drew dangerously close to each other – like lovers soon to kiss. She looked up around the sheer cliffs they were passing under. They cast long shadows through the pass, making the throughway seem even thinner. Her ears were attentive to any sounds, but it was Red XIII who heard them first.

"Wolves," he warned, keeping his step. "Many of them."

"Where?" Barret asked, raising his gun-arm ahead of him and searching for them.

"On the cliff. They are trying to keep quiet. I don't know how many of them there are, but it is over five, I would say."

Barret looked up at the cliff's edge. He saw a flash of silver and suddenly it was upon him. The force of the landing wolf knocked Barret to the ground as the gnashing jaws barely missed his nose.

Three more wolves took their chance to leap upon the other four, who were in shock from Barret's attack. One landed on Red XIII's back and bit into his neck, Red XIII roared and bucked the wolf off of him.

The one leaping towards Cloud was easily cut in half as Cloud used his mako reflexes to draw his sword the moment of the attack. Bringing his sword back around he removed the head of the wolf leaping towards Aeris. The flower girl was struck by the headless cadaver and knocked to the ground. She crawled from under it quickly and closed the wound on Red XIII's neck with a quick spell.

Red XIII (as the bleeding stopped and his neck scabbed) leapt towards his attacker, who had stood again and was coming back after him. They met midair, thrashing their sharp teeth and claws. Red XIII delivered the fatal blow as they hit the ground, his claw snapping the neck of the wolf.

A few shots fired, and Cloud turned to see that Barret had reached the underbelly of his wolf with his gun-arm, the bullets firing through its gut and into the air. Pushing the corpse off of him, Barret stood up and shot the wolf attacking Tifa. Tifa pushed the wolf off of her and took a breath. The party stopped, ready for further attack, but it had seemed to relent.

"That should scare the rest away, if there were any," Red XIII said, panting, "Strange, they didn't seem to have a strategy, as if they weren't hunting us, but attacking out of desperation."

Growling echoed from all sides of the bottleneck pass and Cloud readied his sword once more. The sounds of barking and howling echoed between the short rock walls and rose up into the mid-day like the blaring of a klaxon. The amount of wolves that jumped out of the rocks was impossible. Twenty, twenty-five… the numbers grew within seconds, each gnashing and clawing at the group.

Cutting his way through two at a time, Cloud ran towards Aeris, surrounded by seven wolves, leaping and biting at her. The chet-chet-chetting of Barret's gun-arm was permanent background noise as the five made their stand in the Bottleneck Pass.

It did not seem possible. They had just proven their strength, but somehow it made the wolves want to attack more. Jaws adrip, the beasts hungered not for meat. They longed for the kill with bloodthirsty malice.

Cloud leapt into the circle of jaws and stood in front of Aeris, warding them off by swinging his sword at them menacingly. Aeris turned around and they stood back to back, swinging their weapons at the wolves, who dodged their meek attacks easily. Each one that leapt at Cloud died almost instantaneously with a flick of his massive sword, and Aeris' metal staff smacked each that leapt at her. They leapt infrequently, however, and Cloud and Aeris were stuck in a stalemate with the wolves for quite some time.

A small flash of light burst the wolf leaping at Aeris into flames. The corpse fell to the ground, burning. The other wolves, caught off guard, didn't notice Tifa creeping up from behind them, materia in hand. She kicked the nearest wolf in the head, her spiked boot driving through its skull and killing it instantly. Moving through the wolves, she arrived in the center of the circle and cast another fire spell, sending another wolf up in smoke.

As Cloud concentrated to his left, a wolf crept undetected to his right, moving in for his ankle. Red XIII pounced on the wolf's skull, crushing the bones with his flame coloured paws. Barret followed suite, blasting his way into the circle. There were ten wolves left, the rest of their pack lay motionless about the Bottleneck Pass.

The four humans stood back to back, and Red XIII walked around them slowly, roaring and barking at the wolves, who hesitated to attack. It was because they knew if they did, it would surely be their end.

There they stood in a deadlock for what seemed like an eternity.

In front of Red XIII's feet, a small mound popped out of the ground. Out of the mound came a mu.

Besides the levrikons (large walking birds related to chocobos but with rare likeness), mus were the largest food source of the field wolf. The mu was a notably peaceful creature that lived in underground tunnels, burrowing easily with its long and sharp front teeth. When it popped up for nuts and greens, the wolves usually took that chance to eat them.

One wolf in particular forgot about the humans they were attacking and went straight for the mu. It is in the mu's nature to either run away, or be eaten. But this particular mu leapt out of its hole and latched onto the snout of the wolf, biting into it. Yelping, the wolf fell to the ground and pawed at the tiny furry creature, who was biting right into the wolf.

With a rising tremor, the critters massed underground and burrowed their way Planet side, ferociously overwhelming the wolves in numbers. In their swarm, they attacked their natural predators. After a few moments, all of the wolves were overtaken and a single surviving Kalm fang tried to escape. The mus gave chase and gnawed at its ankles. When it collapsed, the mus began gruesomely eating the wolf.

The ten wolves were consumed by the mus, who numbered in the thirties. After they had eaten their fills of wolf, the rodents looked to the humans, their eyes red as blood.

"What the hell?!" Barret shouted, and open fired on the critters.

The mus buried themselves into the ground and popped up behind Barret, scurrying up his leg and latching onto his face. Barret grabbed it with his hand and threw it off.

"Into the cliffs!" Cloud shouted, and ran up to a cliff, using its ledges to lift himself above ground. The rest followed and when they had reached the cliffside, they looked down on the mus, who had returned to eating the wolves.

"I don't understand..." Aeris struggled for breath, "Mus are herbivores. Did you see their eyes, Cloud?"

Cloud nodded, mesmerized by the carnage below.

"It's all the damn Shinra!" Barret raved, "The reactors are fucking up the whole damn planet! Wolves attack us for no goddamn reason, and without relent, and mus attack their predators, and then us!"

"These cliffs should carry us above the ground for a while," Cloud said, unsure if that would help against the burrowing critters. He looked warily out onto the plains, "but it looks like there is a swamp a kilometre or so away from here. Still, it should be safe to return to the ground by then. After that, we can walk around the marshes, if we can."

They followed Cloud's lead, and when they neared the marshes, they saw a great shadow underneath the surface of its waters. Before leaving their plateau, they examined it.

There was a large snake underneath the water. Large was an understatement. There was a massively enormous serpent skimming the surface of the marshes, which was more like a dirty lake than a swamp. The serpent moved quickly, and in a few moments it was too far away to see between the moss and the dirt that floated above the swamp water.

Cloud had encountered this monster before. Sephiroth and he had gone on a mission to that very swamp. They took a boat across the lake to get to the mythril mines, and the serpent had attacked them. Sephiroth had wounded it so that it fled, but the creature was still alive it seemed.

Climbing off their ledge, they were on solid grass. The marshes extended towards the mountains, where they could see the great entrance to the abandoned mythril mines.

Turning from the marshes, they looked back unto the fields. They could see nothing but perpetual skies of blue and rolling green hills. There had to be something beyond the hills, a shack to rest in, a tree to take shelter under. He felt Aeris' curative magic heal the scratch in his arm.

"Didn't need to waste your energy like that, Aeris."

"I know," came the simple reply.

"…Let's keep going."


	42. Book 2: Farm Boy

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 10**

**Farm Boy**

Apprehensive about "killing the grass" with her combat boots, Aeris took them off and walked barefoot, and eventually convinced everyone except Barret to do so. The Grasslands were as flat as Midgar's top plate, but the blades of green tickled the soft spots of Cloud's feet. They seemed lost in a dream world, the mountains had faded into the fog of distance, or rolled onto the other side of the world. Barret was the tallest thing in sight. They were four (and a half) blemishes on the face of the Planet.

_'And what a Planet this is,'_ Cloud mused. Walking through endless lush greenery, Cloud briefly wondered if the smoke and ruin of the rest of the world was all just a terrible dream, and the real world was all grass and rolling hills, and green, green everywhere and bright baby blue above.

There was a dwarf tree that popped up in the field, about the size of Barret, so they had to lie under it to get some shade. Tifa napped, stretching her toes in front of her before resting her head against a pillow of black hair on the short trunk of the tree.

Aeris' pale skin was now a hot shade of red, and she winced when she poked at it.

"I've never seen sunburn that bad," Cloud noted.

"It comes from living in Midgar all my life, I guess. This is actually the first time I've seen the sun."

The gravity of her situation just hit Cloud. She was someone who had never left Midgar her entire life. For all her ancient wisdom, mystery and magic, she had never stepped foot outside of the Wastelands before.

"It's strange that you haven't marveled at the sky, Aeris," Red XIII yawned, "this is the first time the sky hasn't been made of metal, after all."

"Yes," she agreed, "But somehow I've always known about clouds. Even though last night was the first night I ever saw the stars, I always knew they were there. There was this theatre in Sector 8 where I used to sell flowers, for the last thirty years it's been playing this same opera. Nothing ever changes there, not even this severed wire around back. It used to spark green mako embers down onto the cobblestone, and when the streets weren't so busy, I would sneak around back and watch the embers fall. They reminded me of shooting stars, you know? Even though I had never seen one... I guess you guys don't experience that because you're not Cetra, I guess. But I know what the warmth and joy of the sun feel like -- I felt it in my church. The beauty of the stars at night dripped from livewires in the city. I could feel the warmth of every soul when mom held me close... mom Gainsborough, that is. Now I can see animals for myself, and they aren't so friendly. Now I can feel the sun for myself, and it's not so friendly. Exactly how I expected it to be. I'm glad I'm with the four of you, here in the dangerous world."

Barret, who was more used to the sun than any of them, sat in the field looking about.

"This tree ain't on the map," he said, "it's a landmark, though, ain't it?"

"We'll have to put it on the map, then!" Aeris decided. "We take a vote for names."

"Avalanche tree," Barret murmured.

"Cloud, do you have any ideas?"

Cloud shrugged.

"I am not a member of AVALANCHE," Red XIII offered.

"Hell yes you are!" Barret argued, "The five of us, we're all AVALANCHE now."

"I'll be leaving as soon as I get home," the beast sighed.

"That's true," Aeris hummed, "How about the Party Tree?"

"The Party?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah! That's what we are, isn't it? A party of five. For now."

"Surprisingly," Cloud said, "I'm going to have to go with Barret on this one."

"Big meanie."

"Avalanche Tree has a better ring to it." Truthfully, it was out of respect for the terrorist faction, which was all but dead, dead and forgotten by next week.

Tifa was roused out of slumber, and she looked about, "What time is it?"

Barret was unforgiving. "Shit, Tifa! None of us got any damn watches! It's Tuesday the ninth, is that enough?"

"Night should be falling soon," Cloud said, putting on his boots, "We should find shelter."

They left the Avalanche Tree to fade away into the distance, once again specks of dust between the vast cerulean and lime.

_'And here we are,'_ Cloud thought, _'Nothing but us and the grass, and the wisps of Cloud above. That's not the way it should be. It should be Cloud and Sephiroth, not Cloud in sky. This is ridiculous, the enormity of the grasslands, it's almost as barren as the wastelands if it didn't make me feel so... healthy.'_

He felt the faint, ethereal tug of a magic spell from Aeris, as she cured herself, the sunburn on her skin faded somewhat, and she walked with a stronger spring in her step, carrying a boot in each hand, swinging them to and fro. Tifa held her spiked boots with one hand - let them dangle – and her other hand rested on her hips as she kicked through the grass softly.

"What an adventure we're having," Tifa said despite herself. Even Barret seemed to be in higher spirits.

It was another few kilometres until they saw the first settling, it began as a speck on the south horizon and grew into a ranch of some sort. A house, adjacent to a large stable, and a great silo between them. As they approached the barn, they noticed a great pen outside, where four yellow chocobos grazed peacefully.

"Oh!" Aeris jumped cheerfully, "Chocobos!"

Even when she made childish remarks as such, her mastering of the common tongue was immaculate. Whereas Barret made a cruel slaughtering of their language, Aeris' diction was unsurpassed, which was the reason her childish banter was tolerable, even welcomed. When she spoke for a long time, it was almost mesmerizing. Unfortunately, she rarely spoke for a long time, and was infrequently serious. Instead, she would quip quickly about chocobos and then run and play like a person twenty years her junior.

She ran up to the wooden fence and grabbed the handrail, which was a thin log, it seemed to be a branch from a dwarf tree (there had to be others around here). Stepping up onto the foot rail with her bare feet, she leaned her waist over the rail and reached out for a nearby chocobo, who seemed unresponsive.

Cloud walked around the pen toward the house. A Chocobo warked at him. "War-he-hoo!" it squawked, and Cloud could only smirk at it. What a terribly unintelligent beast, down to the very look and colour of it, a brilliant yellow.

"Hey Cloud," Aeris called, running up behind him, "Their feathers are like they were plucked out of your head!"

It was intended to be funny, but Cloud's mind was fixated on the house. He was thinking about Sephiroth. Had he been here? Was he even alive? Was he waiting inside right now, ready to kill them all?

The door wasn't much but a chicken wire screen in a wooden frame, swaying gently with the soft, warm winter's breeze. It was warm in the grasslands, even in January, so a proper door wasn't needed. Cloud placed his hand on the rusting handle and pulled it open. The antique hinges played a dirge of ear-numbing melodies, and Cloud stepped into the house.

He was in a small room, cosily furnished. There was an off white loveseat - scratched thoroughly by a housecat - with open crates of grain sitting on the cushions. An old man in a rocking chair reached for the rifle that leaned against the wall behind him.

"Don't shoot!" Cloud said, throwing his hands in the air, "I'm not here to rob you."

"Oh yeah, then why are ye heer?" the old man said, pointing the rifle at Cloud, "Nothing round here for miles. Ye jes came to rob an old coot n' crone of their house, eh?"

"No, I didn't--"

The door swung open and Barret lumbered in.

"Shit, what's goin' on?" Barret said, aiming his gun arm at the old man - who was now unsure of who to aim his shotgun at.

"I'm gettin' robbed, Billy," he announced, but his voice didn't carry, it was drowned out by the creaking of the floorboards, the dancing door and his chair. Who Billy was, or where he was remained a mystery, as the house seemed to consist of this room and the bedroom, out of which no help came.

"We're not here to rob you. Barret, put the gun down."

"Why did ye jes barge in me door?" the old man posed, eying Barret peculiarly. Cloud responded

"I... I don't know. I guess politeness isn't a trait you pick up in Midgar."

"We're on a mission to save the Planet!" Barret announced proudly.

"Me and my fellow travellers are weary and we would like to spend the night here," he explained as courteously as possible. Aeris trotted in, wearing her boots to avoid splinters.

"We're really sorry, mister," Aeris said, and the moment she spoke the old man fell instantly in love with her. He was an old man, and his wife had died several years ago (moreover, he had just learned that his son was killed three days ago) and he had been lonely these nights. Aeris walked in, and the elegant way she controlled her voice pleased his ears, as his eyes feasted on her perfect form. She moved fully in front of Cloud and began to negotiate staying there for free before they headed towards the marshes. He agreed quickly. Aeris had been completely oblivious to his reasons for complying, she was the only one in the party who had.

His name was Chocobo Bill.

"Ye're thinkin' of crossin the marshes, eh?" Chocobo Bill asked Cloud when the others had gone into the room, "You gotta be a-crayzee to do somethin' like that!"

"Yeah, I'm following someone."

"Oh, the man in the black cloak?" Chocobo Bill asked.

"You've seen him?!"

"Yeah, eh? Saw him waltz right into the marshes. I told him he'd be a-crayzee to go in without a chocobo, but he didn'even turn around! Idiot prolly got himself swallowed by the Midgar Zolom."

"What's the Midgar Zolom?" Cloud asked.

"Is a sea serpent, lives in the marshes," Chocobo Bill said, rocking in his chair. Cloud had now taken a seat on a small three-legged footstool, "thirty feet long, it is. And is gawt a hell of a bite, it'll kill ya soon as ya look at 'er."

"I've encountered it before," Cloud said, "But I survived. Is there still a boat we can take?"

"Nope," Chocobo Bill cackled, "the Shinra took it away after the mines closed down."

"How do I cross the marshes, then?" Cloud asked.

"The only way to survive the Midgar Marshes is to outrun the Midgar Zolom! And ye sure can't do it wading through the waters, I'll tell you that! Even if ye could walk over the water, the Zolom would jes as soon bite ye in half! Naw, ye'll need a chocobo, those birds walk across shallow waters like a-crayzee, and they're faster than the Zolom."

"Can we rent some chocobos? There are four in your pen."

"I would, kiddo. But the chocobos are rented out to the racers from the Gold Saucer."

The casino in the west. Cloud had never heard of it before arriving in Tifa's bar, it sprung up sometime and somewhere between the Nibelheim incident and his arrival in Midgar.

"How do I catch a chocobo?" Cloud asked.

Chocobo Bill laughed, "That's the providence o me grand sonny Chocobo Billy! He works in the Ranch, y'know? Sleeps in there too with his sister Chole, the kids are a-crayzee!"

Cloud began to suspect that Chocobo Bill's entire family was a-crazy. He refrained from mentioning that he had seen the corpse of Bill's son, Chocobo Will, slain at the hands of Shinra. Will had been just as daft as his father, and Cloud assumed that Chocobo Billy (or Bill III) would be the same.

Cloud thanked Chocobo Bill for his hospitality, to which Bill replied, "No problem, not with that fine lookin' laydee you gots with ye!"

"Oh, Aeris?'

"Yeeeee!" Chocobo Billy squealed, "she's the kinda laydee ye can trust, that's why I let that nigger stay too. Won't find a pretty laydee like that on this planet or any other!"

"Other Planets?" Cloud wondered, "But we're on _the _Planet."

"Ye silly young ragamuffin," Chocobo Bill chuckled, "Of COURSE there're other planet. None of 'em got names, but they're there jes the same. There's a difference between the Planet and a planet."

"A planet and the Planet..." What a confusing thing to call the world. Cloud shifted on his stool as he looked through the screen door. A cool nights wind blew through the grass as the stars twinkled in the sky, "that's a comforting thought, I guess, that we're not the only rock in the sky. That there are other worlds out there. People always tell you, that the stars are some cosmic force, little blinking fates the govern our world. What a small way of thinking. Those stars are suns, I just realized. Each has their own Planet to shine upon, billions of kilometres away..."

"Yer heads so full o nogg, I could drink it! We're not even alone with our star, there's many planets floatin' around us, sharin the light from the sun."

"So humans just called this 'the Planet' to make ourselves feel important? As if we were the only ones that god, or the stars or whatever are looking out for? How like us. Well, if I was an agnostic yesterday, I'm an atheist today."

"That's why I jes rock in me chair," Chocobo Bill sighed, "It's too much do worry about what's beyond the marshes anyway." Suddenly, he stopped rocking, and slumped back into his chair, falling quickly asleep.

Cloud assumed that the conversation was done, and stood from his stool. The conversation had been interesting, but he was glad that he didn't need to listen to Chocobo Bill's terrible dialect. If Aeris Gainsborough had a vocal antithesis, that would have been it. Cloud found it funny (peculiar) that someone so racist could sound so much like Barret.

There was a chocobo feather on the table and a small porcelain bowl of ink. Cloud approached it, sighing. Shinra had develloped the pen years ago, and artificial ink. Out here in the Grasslands, he assumed, there was no such luxuries. The irony that even without killing the Planet, humans survive on the discomfort and slaughter of animals. A feather plucked from a chocobo. Ink extracted from the guts of a cephalopod. Ranches made of a dozen dwarf trees.

That reminded him. He pulled out the map, which had been encircling the party for some time and had made its way into his belt pouch. He unscrolled it. "The East Continent: A Map by Chiara Fawlher."

Fawlher. The man who had taken his photograph. The pattern of life indelible, the connections one makes. He laid the map on the table and dipped the feather in the ink. He was never much good at writing, but he managed to put a dot on the map and scrawl out "Avalanche Tree" somewhere in the great white area labelled "The Grasslands." Another dot was placed arbitrarily on the map, and the words were writ "Chocobo Ranch." And that was all, for now. They were changing the face of the Planet, step by step, they were altering the map. How like a human, to name and shape the world how he sees fit. Cloud put the feather back in the ink, laid the map on the table and went into the guest room. Red XIII was curled on the rug by the dying fire. There were two beds, Barret slept in one of them, and he was sprawled out, his arms poking out of the sides of the plaid comforter. Aeris took up little space on the second large bed, and Cloud didn't think before he lowered his sword on the ground and crawled into bed with her. She did not wake.

He felt sleep crawling up to him. For all creatures, no matter what planet, need sleep. And while this sleep would be dreamless, he thought all night and day of one thing, and that was settling his score with Sephiroth. The thought of the piercing green eyes of his enemy plagued him. It was almost as if the eyes were beckoning him, to follow him through fire, to get his revenge, the revenge he could not take five years ago.

But something else had been creeping up on his thoughts this past week. It was not of hate, or revenge, or the scouring of Nibelheim. It was the pale, plain face of Aeris. The way she moved, talked, leaned on the fence and played with the chocobos. It was the way she was a master at magic, the way she could speak with the Planet and how through all this, she still seemed as human as him. And he felt comfortable in the bed with her, her warmth traveling through the sheets and keeping him cozy on this winter night. And he fell asleep, some of his growing obsession with hatred gone, replaced with what might be a blossoming love for the flower girl in bed with him.

In the room with them, Tifa sat propped by the fire, she had dosed off but had awoken when Cloud's sword had been laid against the ground. Her eyes lifted open as she saw Cloud crawling into bed with Aeris. Out of the window, the sky was getting lighter as it drew close to morning. The blackness of the night turned into a grey-purple. The song of the crickets was gone now, but the rooster was still fast asleep. And as for Tifa, her eyelids were heavy and she obeyed them, but her mind was running with a million thoughts.

Jealousy exists on every world.


	43. Book 2: Midgar Zolom

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 11**

**Midgar Zolom**

Chocobo Billy slept in the empty stables of the chocobo barn. There were eight stables altogether and he and his sister Chole shared the one in the back. The stable across from their makeshift bed had been turned into a small shop, where Chocobo Billy sold items to those wishing to catch chocobos.

When Cloud entered, he was surprised to find that Chocobo Billy was a boy of ten or so.

"Catchin' a Chocobo?" Billy asked Cloud and his companions, and it was clear that he had not learned Common from his Grandfather.

"What about the chocobos in the pen outside?" Cloud asked.

"Those belong to some rich bastards that can afford to keep 'em here, feed 'em and race 'em. You're not lookin' to race, are ya?"

"No, we only want it for the day," Cloud said.

"Well good, cause as soon as you get off a wild one, it'll run away faster than you can say… 'stop you stupid chocobo!'"

"How do I catch one?"

"Chocobos are very skittish creatures, if they see anything out of the ordinary, they'll prolly get frightened an' run away! Because of this, it's hard to catch em, unless you can lure them to you with some greens," Chocobo Billy said, "And I'm just the one to sell them to you!"

Beckoning them with a large wave of his hand, Chocobo Billy walked into the shop, "We gots all kinds of greens here! Gyshal, Krakka, Tantal, Pasana, Curiel, Mimett, you name it we got it. We're all out of nuts though, but it's okay 'cause you're not lookin' to breed 'em!"

"How much are they?"

"Gyshal's the cheapest – that'll set ya back a hunnerd gil. Mimett's a lil more expensive, and it'll cost ya about fifteen hunnerd."

"Fifteen hundred gil for a plant?" Cloud choked.

"Yeah," Chocobo Billy said, "It's worth the money, though. Makes the chocobo stronger and faster. Kind of makes 'em a lil loopy though. Tantal seems to be the most balanced, but if you want 'em distracted for a long..."

At this point, Cloud had zoned out. The sun had just risen and he had gotten barely any sleep. Moreover, he was not particularly interested in all the different types of greens the little boy was trying to sell him.

"Whatever, I'll buy five of the cheapest greens."

"That'll be five hunnerd gil, please." Chocobo Billy said, somewhat insulted that he had been cut off.

They set off to catch chocobos.

Upon leaving the Chocobo Ranch, Cloud realized his folly. Red XIII could not ride a chocobo.

"Red," Cloud asked the beast, who had failed to say anything, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm as fast as a chocobo," Red XIII said, "And you'd be surprised at my dexterity in shallow waters. Don't worry about me, get yourself a chocobo."

"We can't catch them all in a group," Cloud said, "So we'll have to split up. If we have no luck in twenty minutes, meet back here. We'll keep in touch using our PHS."

Twenty minutes came and went, and Red XIII stood in the winter sun, thankful that it was not too terribly hot against his fur. It was his only moment alone since before meeting the party. And what had been before that? Sitting in crates, getting experiments, getting tattooed. He was more than happy to take the role of pack-mule – grateful, even. They would miss his usefulness when he returned home, but it would make it much easier to abandon them when the time came. He could see their bond growing – and he was beginning to admire Aeris' pluck (despite the occasional pat on the nose) and Barret's stalwart idealism. He could imagine them visiting them at his home, and he thought of welcoming them in turn. He smiled at this thought, and the skin pulled back from his jaws, revealing them in the morning sun.

* * *

The green hung limply from Cloud's fisted glove. He saw the enormous yellow bird pecking the ground near a small flock of levrikons. The black, thin-necked birds were uninterested in Cloud, but the chocobo could smell the greens.

It pulled its great head up from the grass and turned in his direction, its huge blue eyes scanning him thoroughly. It began to trot away from the levrikons towards him.

_'Stupid chocobo,'_ Cloud thought, _'It's a miracle you survived this long. Yeah, come a little closer.'_

The bird trotted right up to him, and he tossed the green onto the grass. It hopped over to it and began to eat it.

_'All right, that won't distract him for long. Gotta make my move!'_

Moving slowly, Cloud got far enough behind the chocobo to be outside of its view. He then took a running jump and landed squarely in the riding position. The chocobo reared its head back in surprise, and the soggy bit of leaf flew out of its mouth. Cloud grabbed at the feathers in its neck. Even through his gloves, he could feel their softness, their fullness. They were deeply rooted inside the skin of the bird, perfect for control. He jerked his hands in the direction he wanted it to turn and it stumbled slaunchways for a moment before righting itself. It shook its head briefly and Cloud's hands were nearly torn away from the feathers – but the feathers had a great grip.

The ranch was a speck in the distance, and Cloud kicked at the side of the bird, who took off towards it.

When Cloud had set out that morning, under-slept and with thoughts of Sephiroth on his mind, he was certain that the entire chocobo ordeal would be the bane of his day. As he felt the powerful legs carry him faster than a car could on this terrain, he felt that (despite himself) his mouth began to curl into a smile.

There was something in the way the wind was blowing through the golden feathers; the smell of the bird has hints of soil and sweat that was all very Nibelheim.

_'You'd been in the city a few weeks,'_ he laughed at himself, _'and you had forgotten that you are a farm boy at heart.'_

He kicked at the chocobo's side again. The chocobo blasted into a full sprint, running with its head close to the ground and its tailfeathers up. Cloud might have been thrown right off the front if his reflexes hadn't saved him. The fact that he managed to stay on the bird and still have control of it caused him to burst into a full-on grin. A small bit of his brain meekly suggested that he shouldn't have fun, that chocobos were dumb, silly creatures and that he was a man now who couldn't be bothered with such frivolities. The voice was drowned out in a sea of adrenaline.

They were nearing the ranch now, and Cloud saw that Aeris and Tifa had already arrived with their chocobos. Chocobo Billy was bringing out reigns for the birds, and the boy stood on a crate while he slipped the leather strap over Tifa's steed to prevent it from opening its beak. The reigns were thrown to Tifa, who seemed just as ease atop a chocobo as Cloud.

Cloud pulled back on the thick, lush feathers and the chocobo slowed to a stop, bringing its neck up and Cloud had to adjust atop it again. He waited for Billy to throw Aeris her reigns, and Cloud trotted up to the crate.

"Hehe," Aeris giggled, "Hey Cloud, you and your chocobo have the same coloured hair! Do all chocobos look like you?"

Had anyone but Aeris made that comment, it would have made Cloud quite grumpy, as the similarity was made frequently. He shook his head as Tifa laughed, for she understood him. Tifa recalled the little boy named Cloud from Nibelheim, nicknamed "Chocobo-head."

_'Where's that little boy now?'_ she thought, laughing at Cloud.

When the reigns were secure, Cloud hopped off the chocobo and tied the reigns to the fence. The chocobo wildly tried to run away, but Cloud had tied a good knot. The fence creaked with the weight of the bird, but that was all. Cloud took the pack off of Red XIII and strapped it onto Tifa's chocobo. "Here you go, Red XIII. Now you can move quickly. We wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Yes, thank you."

"If you ever have a problem with the load you carry, let us know. Barret can easily carry one of the packs on his back."

Red XIII hesitated, "Yes. Thank you. I am fine I assure you, but your offer is appreciated."

Aeris and Tifa watched with increasing interest as Cloud returned to his chocobo and put his hands up. The chocobo struggled against the leather strap around its beak, but when Cloud touched it, the bird seemed somewhat pacified. He didn't do any more than that, but there was a tenderness to it that the girls were agape at. Cloud grabbed the feathers and pulled himself weightlessly onto its back, throwing his leg over the side and behind the wing. The chocobo grunted its disapproval, but had given up some of its earlier dithering.

Cloud looked at the girls and offered a single "What?" to which there was no response.

After a few moments, they wondered where Barret had gotten. Cloud picked up his PHS, and flicked the 'talk' switch on the top of the black box.

"Barret?" he asked into the grated receptor.

Cloud's voice rang out on everyone's PHS, coming through crackled and full of static.

After a moment, Barret's voice came through, "I tried my lure," he huffed wildly, "an' I tried Red's lure! But all these mus kept poppin' up all ova the place! I had to kill 'em, so they didn't get the chocobo… or me. But it spooked the damn bird away!"

They saw him on the horizon, thirty metres away. Cloud knocked his feet to the chocobos' sides and shouted, "YA!" and rode to meet Barret.

Red XIII's watchful eye surveyed Cloud as Barret climbed aboard Cloud's chocobo. Barret fired a few bullets at pursuing mus. They rode together back towards the group. Cloud's face had taken on a much more dour, familiar expression.

"The sooner we get through the marshes, the sooner the ground will be safe to walk on," Cloud said, and they headed towards the marshes, "For all the nice scenery, this planet sure doesn't stop throwing obstacles in your way."

"Yeah," Tifa agreed.

Each of their chocobos had small air pockets in their feet that made their two-toed claws act as balloons in the water, carrying the chocobo and its rider effortlessly across calm waters. This was common for chocobos, but when it came to any sort of waves, however, the yellow chocobo would know where its abilities lie, and would dare not venture, even with a rider present to force them ahead.

These chocobos were having no problem with the marshes, and Red XIII frantically dogpaddled, keeping his head barely above water. While appearing clumsy and obviously hating the wetness, Red XIII was going at an alarming speed. The chocobos, however, were going faster, and needed to be subdued by their riders.

They said nothing, their eyes on the water.

* * *

After a few minutes, the mountain region at the end of the swamp was in sight, and the entrance to the mythril mines was a speck now. There was still no sign of the Midgar Zolom.

The suspense was getting to Cloud, and he feared that since they could not see it, it must be right upon them.

They moved silently through the waters, the only sound was the quiet flap-fwapping of the chocobos' feet on the surface, and Red XIII's occasional splash with his front paws.

The door was closer now, and land was in sight, closer than Cloud had imagined. As they neared it, he was ready to applaud Chocobo Billy and his inane grandfather Bill for their advice.

There were only a few more metres until land. Red XIII swam ahead quickly, and he climbed ashore, dripping wet. Shaking off the drips, he stood disenchanted at the shoreline as the chocobos moved onto solid ground.

Standing for a moment on the other side, Cloud turned his chocobo around and looked at the swamp they had crossed. The farm was too far away to see.

Saying nothing, they all dismounted and the chocobos ran into the swamp, spreading out in different directions. They stood on the shoreline and watched their great birds run into the distance. Waiting for the Zolom to raise its head from the waters and snatch one of them.

No such thing happened, and the chocobos ran out of sight into the morning mist.

The silence was eerie. They turned and headed through the rocky path to the mythril mine entrance.

Coming around a large curve, Cloud noticed something on the path's right. There was a large niche in the mountain, empty except for a long wooden mast. The mast had once been a tree, but it had been stripped of all its leaves and branches and was now a twenty-foot spike protruding from the ground.

What caught Cloud's eye was the large serpent that was wrapped around the broken tree, On the ground lay its long scaled tail and its slender body wrapped up the tree until its head rested at the top, with the jagged tip of the tree coming out the top of its skull. Its blood stained features had dried and were now rotting, its long forked tongue hung towards the ground almost as a sign of submission.

Throughout the body there were several cuts, made by a sword of some kind. Cloud knew instantly who it had been. Who else could have killed the legendary Midgar Zolom? It was not only killed, but brutally executed. Lifted right off the ground and impaled onto a broken tree, forevermore to be a symbol of Sephiroth's strength.

"So that's why the swamps is all calm," Barret commented, bewildered.

"Only Sephiroth could have done this," Cloud said, "we must be on the right track. The Zolom was alive yesterday – we all saw it. Sephiroth has been here, and recently. Let's keep going."

They walked through the dark door into the mines, leaving the Midgar Zolom to rest in peace.

* * *

Upon dismounting, the three chocobos now had a small understanding of where the voices were coming from. With a quick "Wark!" they bounded back over the surface of the wetlands, scrambling as fast as they could to nowhere in particular.

"Goodbye, Choco!" Aeris called.

Red XIII, who was mostly dry at this point, stood at the mouth of the mine looking at the group. "Well? Shall we? Into the darkness of the mythril mines, abandoned by the most hardy of humans. Unsheath your sword, then, I've heard about this place."

Cloud left the sword on his back and walked into the mine, disappearing quickly in the blackness of the cave. Barret followed, making sure not to lose sight of their leader.

"Tifa," Red XIII said, "I suppose it will be up to you and I to provide light for this party."

Tifa nodded, "We'll take turns then. When your flame goes out, mine will come on."

"I suppose torches weren't in AVALANCHE's budget," Aeris posed coyly.

"I heard that!" echoed Barret's defense.

Inside, as Cloud's eyes were just adjusting to the light, the walls were illuminated with crackling force. He needed to squint to adjust once more. He turned to notice Red XIII. Hovering above his head was a flame on an invisible wick, a bowl of light that cast their shadows along the silver wallls.

Immediately in front of them was a fork in the tunnel, leading off in three directions.

"Goddammit, Cloud!" Barret exploded, his rage echoed down the three stone corridors, "This won't be the last time this happens! We shoulda just gone over the mountains like we did gettin' to Midgar."

"Maybe you're right, Barret..."

"Ha! See, what'd I tell ya? If I was the leader, we wouldn't be fumblin' around in the creepies. My jeebies are so fulla heebies I could almost die!"

"Are you scared of bugs, Barret?" Tifa smirked.

"What?! Tifa what are you, ignorant? You can't scare a big man! Hell, I'm nearly a monster myself!"

But a centipede wormed along the wall and Barret, while trying to act casual, was inching away from it.

"Let's go into the central tunnel," Cloud decided finally, "I'll keep going central unless any of you have other suggestions."

No one did, and Cloud led the way, with Red XIII acting as a walking torch behind him.

"Thank you, Red XIII," Cloud noted.

"I'm surprised that you would invite the light, Cloud," Red XIII replied, "The way it sounds, you would be perfectly content in the dark."

"I'm only human," he said, "being blinded is one thing, but being blind is another completely. Neither are desirable."

"I know what you mean..."

"I didn't mean to bring up--"

"It's fine," the beast assured, "I don't miss the eyeball. While depth perception is a new challenge, I do look a mite more ferocious."

"You got that right!" Aeris cheered, finding room in the tunnel to walk beside Red XIII and pat his nose.

"Don't do that."

"Get a room," Barret laughed, "Oh wait, you already tried!"

He burst out into hard laughter, which in and of itself was amusing. Their spirits lightened as Red XIII's flame faded. Tifa rekindled the hovering fire over Red XIII's head. It was such a small spell that the "magic tug" was only felt by Aeris, who was keen to paranormal activities.

The girl could hear the Planet, after all.

They continued through the mines. Barret was still clueless ("in the dark," she mused) as to Tifa's magical prowess. Cloud kept a few steps ahead. Red XIII and his keen nose detected foulness ahead so they turned to the left, winding through tunnels for hours.


	44. Book 2: Elena of the Turks

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 12**

**Elena of the Turks**

Hanging down from the ceiling was a single light bulb. It tried in vain to light up the whole room as it dangled helplessly from a chewed wire. A single small bug danced around the bulb. It tried in vain to get through the glass into the light, just as the bulb was attempting to make its light twice as powerful.

Although, with the light as dim as it was, it allowed Reno to fall in and out of sleep, since no one was around anyway. He could only look up at the light bulb when he grew tired of slumber, his head and neck were strapped shut and caged in white plaster.

_'No signatures,' _he sighed, remembering a cast he had in school over a broken leg. Scented markers portraying crudely drawn self portraits from his small friends. Well-wishes and jokes that stayed with him for weeks. He had so many children jumping at the chance to befriend him that the signatures would not all fit on his cast. A girl he was sweet on, Relm, the little painter girl, could not sign because there was no more canvas to paint. Boy, was he ever in love with her! Children dream love, and may experience puppy love, but Reno knew that his feeling for her were more divine and perplexing that fathomable to a boy of six. Twenty years later, as he lay in a blank body cast, he still thought back fondly of her. Perhaps he still loved her.

_'Where is the little painter girl, now? An artist? A starving artist? Still living in Midgar? In the slums? Was... was she in Sector 7? Gone with the wind? With millions of people? With my apartment... How long have I been here?... Days, probably...'_

The bug charged the bulb ferociously and it swung meekly to and fro, changing the lighting in the room. The insect cast a large shadow on the wall that Reno likened to the deadly jayjujayme bug, a monster in Wutai. And oh, how he longed to take a vacation and visit Wutai. The food at the Turtle's Paradise truly lived up to its name, and to have ale again! Ale instead of this daft medicine the crack slumling doctors spoon-fed him while he drifted in and out. Where were the real doctors, anyway?

Two sets of footsteps echoed down the empty corridor. _'Tseng and Rude,'_ Reno recognized. Surely enough, the leader of the Turks and Reno's long-time, silent-type partner walked into the room.

"Good morning, Reno," Tseng said, "I'm glad to see you're awake."

"What day is it?"

"It's nearly noon on Wednesday the tenth... of January, in case you thought you were out for a month. You've only been in the hospital for four days."

"Where are all the doctors? Isn't this a hospital? ...a dingy Sector 3 hospital, by the looks of it, but a hospital nonetheless."

"Reno, all of Shinra's doctors lived on the Sector 7 upper plate. We killed them all when we brought the plate down."

"All of them?"

"Every one. President Rufus doesn't see it as a priority to search the rubble for healing materia, so we can't heal you magically."

"Rufus? So Shinra is dead? ... Well that doesn't matter. What about SOLDIERs? Don't they have healing materia?"

"That's something else, too," Tseng paused, rubbing the mole on his forehead, "SOLDIERs have been... disappearing. Abandoning their posts, speaking in gibberish. Hojo resigned after AVALANCHE attacked the headquarters, so he can't provide us with any insight. In fact, we don't even know where he is."

"Then I need to get better even sooner, eh?" Reno tried moving his eyebrows, but miraculously those even seemed to ache, "That sounds like more than a day's work. SOLDIERs reappearing, AVALANCHE still on the rampage, a new regime. Sheesh Rude, heal me so we can get cracking! How are we going to fix me?"

"We're in the process of finding you some slumling doctors." Rude replied sternly, as he was wont to do.

"SLUMLINGS?! I dealt with those emergency slumlings just to get into this cast! Slumling doctors don't know shit, they'll cut me open and use drugs, Tseng, _drugs_!"

"Unless you would like to heal naturally, this is the only way we'll be able to get you back on your feet," Tseng's tone grew colder, "if we have any hopes of the three of you finding Sephiroth."

"... I don't know which I should ask about first, the part about three of us, or the part about Sephiroth."

"Sephiroth is alive," Tseng said, "He depopulated the Shinra building and rubbed out President Shinra."

"Depopulated? How official."

"We've assigned Elena with Rude for the time being, you will join them as soon as you feel up to it."

"Elena?" Reno wondered, but soon he remembered. Some cute young something, a trainee, that Tseng had kind of a crush on. He had been wanting to get her into the Turks for some time now. _'So that's how it is,' _conjectured Reno, _'My replacement... Well I won't let that bimbo replace me.'_

"If you run into Cloud, or AVALANCHE," he instructed, "tell them I want to repay them for this ten fold."

They both nodded. "Be well," was all Rude said before they trotted down the corridor.

_'Listen to 'em! Click, click, click goes the heels of their fancy shoes. Oh man, why did I say that? Ten fold? I hope it's more intimidating than it sounds now, because I sure as hell don't have any idea of how to pay them back...'_

* * *

Moving from their usual routine of SOLDIER-scouting, kidnapping, spying, murdering and other secret missions, the Turks had been assigned, through Heidegger and partially Tseng, to fully assist Rufus in the search for Sephiroth. Tseng, Rude and Elena left Midgar in the Turks helicopter shortly after speaking with Reno and began their search at Fort Condor, where they spoke with the garrison there. Rude and Elena received orders from Tseng to inspect the mythril mines. They arrived at 1500 hours on the west side of the mines. Rude and Elena took two different paths, as right after the entrance there was a fork in the road. Rude, walking alone, came upon a small ledge. There were thick hemp vines that led to the rocky ground of the mines, and he climbed down slowly, making sure to keep his coat as neat as possible. It was at times like these when he missed Reno. Oh, how Reno never cared about cleanliness or professionalism, which was Rude's forte. Elena and Reno were complete opposites, and yet, working with her somehow didn't fit Rude as well as it did when Tseng conceptualised it. Rude could wear Reno like a well tailored suit, one of those really nice ones from Sector 2, where Rude got his real suit. 

He confused himself with the metaphor, and continued to shimmy down the vine.

* * *

The mythril mines were curious. Along the walls, great roots winded and sparkled white with the natural metal. The floor seemed to shimmer like glass, while completely opaque. Out of cracks and ledges, mist crept up. The miners had been very skilled, and they had carved stone steps to numerous different areas. 

Elena had found herself high above where they had come in. She was in a tunnel that made many twists and turns only to lead to a dead end. She stopped, looking at the abandoned mining site. Picks still lay around. There were scratches in the walls.

'_What happened here?'_ Elena asked herself._ 'Were the beasts always here, or did the miners dig them out?'_

She had heard rumours that Shinra's mako reactors had caused the beasts to start acting this way, but that couldn't be true. She was now a member of the Turks; she was on the in, now fully knowledgeable in all of Shinra's secrets. She reassured herself this way and headed back to find another way.

Elena was from the slums, but she succeeded in hiding it, she spoke properly and was well groomed, better, she thought than Reno from the upper plate. Fit to be a Turk, she reasoned. Not fit for slumling conspiracy theories.

* * *

Reaching the bottom of the hemp vine, Rude stepped on something. It was a small stone, pale green in color, and Rude recognized it to be a materia stone. _'How rare,'_ he thought, _'natural materia…'_ He picked it up and put it in his pocket. He hoped it was a healing crystal, so that Reno could be cured without slumling doctors. 

There was a noise behind him, footsteps. Rude turned around and saw someone he never expected to see. It was Cloud Strife, and he seemed in a hurry to leave.

"Just a second," Rude said calmly, and Cloud turned to face him. Rude noticed the rest of Cloud's party coming from the caves of the mine, "do you know who I am?"

"The Turks, right?" Cloud crossed his arms callously. Rude never liked Cloud's attitude, he found it, well, quite rude.

"Well if you know, then this won't take long," Rude started, "It's difficult to explain what the Turks do."

"Kidnapping, right?"

Again, Cloud spoke too soon, without thinking. Rude took his time with his words. He was a thinker. Cloud constantly forced him into talking quickly, something he was not accustomed to.

"To put it negatively, you could say that," Rude said. "But that's not all there is to it anymore..."

Rude suddenly stopped. He didn't know what to say. He hadn't calculated it. He might slip up and say something he didn't mean. And why was he wasting his words on Cloud Strife, in any case? Why did he want them to relate to him? He would never know. Cloud waited for him to continue, but suddenly Rude had lost his will to speak, and instead opted to coldly glare back at Cloud through his dark sunglasses.

"Sir!" came a voice from a nearby ledge. All of them looked to see Elena of the Turks. She was easy to spot, as her hair was the same color as Cloud's (and by that token, the same color as a chocobo).

"It's all right, Rude! I know you don't like speeches, so don't force it!" Elena said. Turning to Cloud, she said, "I'm Elena."

"Who?" Cloud asked, "You're not a Turk."

"Thanks to what you did to Reno, we're short handed," Elena said, although it showed that she was very grateful to be a new Turk. "Our job now is to find out where Sephiroth is headed, and to try and stop you every step of the way!"

Elena thought for a moment, "No, wait," she said, "it's the other way around... you are the ones getting in our way. Oh, crap."

"Elena," came the familiar voice of Tseng from the cave entrance, "you talk to much."

"Mr. Tseng?!" Elena gasped.

"No need to tell them of our orders. Just go to our next destination, and don't forget to file your report."

"Very well!" Elena said, saluting Tseng clumsily, "Rude and I will intercept Sephiroth, who is heading for Junon Harbour."

"Elena," Tseng said, his face contorting into a frown as he massaged a migraine out of the bridge of his nose, "you don't seem to understand."

"Oh! Hey, oh shit, eh?"

"Just go," Tseng ordered, "don't let Sephiroth get away."

Rude climbed back up the hemp vine and stood beside Tseng. Turning to Cloud, he said, "Reno said he wanted to see you after the injuries you gave him healed. He wants to show his affection for you all, with a new weapon."

Rude moved past Tseng to the helicopter. Elena moved back into the tunnel from whence she came. Tseng was left alone, standing on the ledge as Cloud and his companions stood below.

"Aeris," Tseng said, "long time no see. Looks like you're safe from Shinra for a while, now that Sephiroth's reappeared."

"What are you saying? That I should be grateful to Sephiroth?"

"No," Tseng said thoughtfully, "I just won't be seeing you for a long time. So take care."

"Strange, hearing that from you," Aeris replied coldly.

Tseng turned and headed for the mouth of the cave. "Well then, stay out of Shinra's way." He walked into the light.


	45. Book 2: The Blue Reactor

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 13**

**The Blue Reactor**

It was a swift wind that blew through the south province, dubbed 'The Woodlands' although Cloud couldn't imagine why. The land withered and only a thin line of trees was seen on the northern horizon. South from the cave mouth, it looked more like The Wastelands than anything else, flat and ash grey. There was a small tooth shaped mountain on the south horizon, and they stood a moment looking at it. Atop the mountain, there was a massive structure, painted as azure as the sky.

"That's tooth rock," Barret explained, "a mako reactor. see that bird up there? 'S the legendary Condor."

Indeed there was a bird resting on the top of the blue reactor. It was nearly as massive as the structure itself. In it's squatting position, head bowed and facing the southern sea, it loomed another twenty metres above the mountain and the reactor, sitting on a giant egg.

"Cloud," Barret noted as the leader headed south, "Junon is north, past the forests."

"We won't make it by nightfall," Cloud replied, "we sleep at Fort Condor tonight."

"And what makes you think we'll be welcome at a mako reactor?" Red XIII posed.

"That's easy," Barret said, "Inside the mountain is a colony, a whole buncha people who wanna protect the Condor from Shinra."

"I'm betting they know who we are," Tifa added, "it's not often we find open arms. Good decision, Cloud."

Barret huffed and they continued on.

Aeris walked beside Cloud, kicking stones with her combat boots. "You've been here before, haven't you? You were just on the wrong side."

"How can you tell?"

She giggled, "I'm getting pretty good at reading you. Not so enigmatic anymore, tough-guy."

"We can't all be, Aeris."

She grinned ear to ear, "You mean me? Was that an insult or a ham-fisted attempt at flirtation?"

"Yes, I was here, a few months before the Nibelheim incident. There is a garrison of Shinra troops stationed near the bottom of Tooth Rock, they asked for Sephiroth's assistance."

"And you, of course, went with him."

"Hey, we were partners. He did most of the dirty work, though. When you're fighting with Sephiroth, you don't... you can't do much except just watch. Must've been a sight to see in the war... I wonder if my father ever met him."

"Mr. Strife Senior?" Aeris smiled, noting that this was the first time Cloud had spoken of his father, "fought in the war I take it?"

"Yeah, he died before I knew what death was. I wonder if he ever met your father."

"My father?" Aeris asked, "I never knew my real father. But mom's husband - Elmyra, I mean..."

"That's who I meant, Elmyra told us about him."

"So she told you about me, too."

"Just that she found you, and promised your mother she would take care of you... and that Tseng has been trying to kidnap you since before forever. That's funny, he looks so young, but he's been a Turk your entire life. That must make him at least forty."

Aeris shrugged, "I don't know, I've never been forty."

"Hey, fools!" Barret called from behind, "What're ya talking about up there? Keepin' secrets?"

Aeris turned around, walking backwards, "Yeah, Cloud was just saying how he wished you had seen him in his dress."

"_What?_" Cloud cried, which sent Aeris and Tifa buckling over with laughter.

* * *

"This's where I take over, 'leader,'" Barret announced loudly. He was apparently still harbouring resentment for Cloud's reluctant ascension to role as leader of the second incarnation of AVALANCHE. "There is a secret entrance 'round back here."

Tooth Rock jutted out from the ground abruptly, and a low but thick mist concealed their feet from them, and Barret stumbled over pebbles as he searched for his secret entrance. Towering before them was the sheer rock face. Atop, the blue reactor and the tail feathers of the condor before the rolling skies above.

A spherical boulder as tall as Barret sat between him and the face of the cliff. Sitting on it, poking at the mist with a large stick was an impoverished young bloke of seventeen or so, and he looked up at them.

"Barret?" Bloke asked with surprise, "Didn't expect to see you come back so soon."

"Hey kid," Barret laughed, "gotta few friends with me, an' we need to spend the night."

Bloke looked over the group. "Might not be the best time, we're settled in for a war with Shinra."

"Shinra don't scare me," Barret shrugged, "'Sides, I got some business with old man Allworth."

"All right, just the four of you, then?"

Cloud looked around, "There are five of us."

"I don't think he's quite counting me," Red XIII mentioned, and the sound of his voice sent Bloke bolting up, standing against the cliffside with his feet balancing atop the boulder.

"Holy shit!" he cried, "It talked!"

"Yes, it did," Red XIII retorted indignantly, "Now if you could be so kind as to let all five of us pass."

"I'm sorry, but you can't get through," Bloke admitted.

"Why not? I would have thought an anti-Shinra faction would be more tolerant of monsters."

"Monster is a term fabricated by Shinra to explain what's happening to the animals," Bloke said, "I'm no ignorant, I'm saying you _can't_ get up there. The whole fort is built like an ant farm inside the mountain. The way between rooms is a series of ropes, but they're too thin to withstand your, uh, teeth."

"Very well. I shall remain here with you until tomorrow. It doesn't get too cold out at night, does it?"

"Are you kidding me?" Bloke asked, jumping off the boulder, "It's January, man! It could be worse though, it gets chilly here but not enough for snow or ice. Just inconvenient. Nothing much for 'The Guardian of the Stone'" he announced his title with such pride, distinction, as he began to roll the boulder away from a carved entranceway into Tooth Rock. Red XIII sat down upon the mist, and it curled around his haunches as he wagged his alit tail. Tifa nodded quickly to the beast before following Cloud into the mountain. Aeris and Barret were close behind. After they went through, Bloke rolled the rock back into place and climbed back atop it.

Cloud found himself in a vertically carved shaft with a long rope descending from above, weighed down by large rock. Clasping the rope with his gloves, he walked up the rock wall until the rope ended, and he found himself in a pub.

Cloud had never been inside Fort Condor before, he assumed it was a mostly military area, where people who had worked in the blue reactor ceased communication with Shinra and shut down the reactor to start a war. The jungles in the islands just south of the Woodlands were powered by the reactor, and harvesting plantations suffered. It got Shinra's attention, at least.

The few people in the bar seemed anything but military. They were elderly now, content with their ales and soft conversation. Barret moved to an elderly fellow seated alone with the rim of his pint hitting the brim of his grey plaid cap.

"Allworth," Barret said when he was behind the old man. Boris Allworth turned around.

"Barret the Blackhearted," he laughed, "is that what they're calling you these days?"

Barret scratched his nose, "I figured you hermits wouldn't know a damn thing."

"We still have a working telly or two in here," he said cheerfully, "we keep the reactor at barely operational to provide us with personal electricity. It doesn't disturb the Condor, in fact, it might even help incubate it's eggs."

"So that giant bird is a condor?" Aeris asked.

"_The_ Condor," Boris laughed, "the only one left, so please enunciate the 'C'. Don't know why it decided to make our roof its nesting ground all those years ago, but now that it's there, we have no choice, and no will for that matter other than to protect it."

"That's why you shut off the reactor," Cloud said, "to protect the Condor."

"Not at all, ex-SOLDIER… Cloud something, wasn't it?"

"Strife."

"Your last name is as silly as your first. Quite a group you have, quite different from when you first came here, Barret," Boris gained a tone more grim, "so what bad news do you have to bear."

"...Well, about Wedge," Barret said, "it's about your son."

* * *

"You were adamant about heading to Junon right away," Tifa said to Barret as they set their equipment down in the Inn, "and not coming here. Why did you do that?"

"I gotta pay my respects to the dead," Barret replied, "but I wanted to take the time to do it. I figured we could help Cloud do his thing, mebbe get a piece of Shinra along the way. An' then, when all's said an' done, I could start puttin' the dead to rest."

"I guess we'll just have to do it along the way," Tifa said, "I think Cloud's in for the long haul, here anyhow. It seems as though he's... almost committed himself to die trying to kill Sephiroth. Like they both should have been wiped out five years ago."

"I wanted to ask you about that," Barret said, "we heard Cloud's side of the story, but not yours."

"Oh, Barret," Tifa sighed, and said nothing more.

Cloud sat with Boris Allworth in the pub, and Aeris brought three ales to the table, plopping down on the wooden bench across the table from them. "This round is on me."

"I was told-thank you, Aeris-that the reactor at Tooth Rock had shut down, and communication had ceased," Cloud continued, "Shinra then established the seventieth garrison just south of here and they were met with resistance."

"All true," Boris said, "but they never told you why."

"There's more reason than just the Condor to shut off the reactor," Cloud preached, "they're sucking up energy from the surrounding environment and that is why the Woodlands wilted and died."

"Listen to you," Aeris said between gulps, "you sound like Barret."

"That is why we shut off the reactor initially, the Condor was more than safe resting on here before. But Shinra didn't like the idea of having a giant bird on the reactor. Apparently, the reactor holds some special materia that the Shinra wants to get their hands on. They came in to get the Condor, and the villagers off the mountain.

"It's strange," Allworth mentioned, "I remember fighting Sephiroth so clearly, but I can't remember seeing anyone like you."

"I mostly stayed in Sephiroth's shadow," Cloud admitted, "despite my rank, I was nothing compared to him."

"Indeed. Well, if you'll excuse me, I... must go."

Boris took his leave and began to climb a rope to a room above them. For such an old man, he was quite nimble.

"Seems pretty grief stricken," Cloud commented.

"The whole colony is," Aeris added, "Wedge was well favoured, and related to almost half of the people here. I never knew him... but from what I hear, he must have been a really sweet guy."

"Yeah, really sweet," Cloud diverted his attention elsewhere, trying not to concentrate on how cruel he had been to Wedge throughout their companionship, "how is your sunburn?"

"Nothing a basic curative spell couldn't fix," she pounded her empty mug against the wooden table, "Wedge's father left his beer here - more for me!"

"Maybe you should slow down."

"Cetra are naturally resistant to poison. So are SOLDIERs, so drink up, buddy."

He lifted his mug, yet untouched, "To Wedge."

"To Wedge."

* * *

Tifa's eyes were open in the middle of the night. She could hear some dying commotion echoing through the soft caves – tankards clinking, taps running dry, and coughing foam. It was nothing compared to the din of Midgar, but the sounds were familiar enough to rob her of sleep.

It was near pitch-black in the caved Inn, the candles had all been blown out. Tifa felt like a mole. The vertical entrance to the inn had echoes of light from the tavern, but not enough for her to make out her own hands. Something shuffled down the vertical entrance and boots slammed on the rock floor.

"Cloud?" Tifa whispered.

"What?" Aeris replied, "No it's me. Tifa, come here."

Tifa rose and felt her way to the entrance, where the lights from the tavern illuminated the shaft. Aeris was already climbing up, and Tifa followed.

Aeris continued through the tavern, and Tifa looked around for Cloud – she couldn't see him anywhere. Aeris found another ladder and ascended.

The ladder took them to the top of Tooth Rock, and they emerged inside a small wooden shack – a lookout post. Tifa gazed out over the Woodlands. More a name than a description these days. Grass peppered the pale silt valley. The distant south sea glinted with moonlight. There were packs of wild trees, but nothing Tifa would label woods.

Aeris walked out of the shack. "Come look at this."

The baby blue of the reactor was vivid against the black night. Tifa could reach out and touch the wall of blue metal, but she kept her hands at her sides, shifting her gaze to the top.

The Condor towered above them. Huge, man-sized wing feathers folded over a huge egg. The egg was many colours. Tifa marvelled at it, but Aeris was already looking at something else.

There were rings of green grass on the mountainside, and Aeris squatted beside them with her head cocked like a dog. Tifa knelt beside her and said, "Circle green. It's a phenomena that happens in the winter. I used to think it was caused by fairies dancing."

"What changed your mind?"

Tifa smiled. "It was just something my mom told me. Something to keep kids interested in living. I liked that, though. But you can't live in a fantasy forever. It's not healthy."

Aeris cocked her head the other way. "What do you mean? I mean, we can use magic, can't we? That's pretty fantastic. The world is full of fantastic things. Like the dead rising."

"We don't even know if Sephiroth is alive. We don't know if he ever died." Tifa waited for Aeris to hum in acknowledgement, and then continued. "As for magic, materia is not magical, it's a science. It can be measured and calculated and controlled. It's been industrialized."

"Just because we understand it, doesn't mean it's not magic."

Tifa's hand itched to stroke the circle green, but Tifa kept it still.

Aeris twisted her body to face uphill. "I mean, look at the Condor. Half the people in Midgar have never in their lives seen a bird. This bird is a fantasy. It's as mythical as a dragon, and I'm not sure those don't exist either... It's nice having someone like me to talk to."

Tifa raised her eyebrows in question.

"Don't get me wrong," Aeris said, "I love them all. The boys are more the 'doing' type, though. It's nice to ruminate."

"Ah," Tifa found she was still smiling. "Cloud's starting to come around."

"You've noticed too? Figures. He's not quite there yet. Let's work on that."

"Okay."

"I don't want to be an obstacle for you, Tifa."

Tifa's hands turned into fists without her consent. "What? No, you've got it all wrong."

"No I don't, but that's okay."

"I don't want to be an obstacle for _you_."

"Like I said, we're similar." Aeris stood to go back inside. "That's why he likes us both. That's why we're going to be great friends."

Tifa stayed kneeling, watching Aeris walk back towards the shack. Tifa said, "We are friends."

Aeris smiled and ducked under a huge Condor feather into the shack.

"Great ones, Tifa. Great ones."

She disappeared back into the Fort. Tifa looked down at her hands, which were absently trailing through the circle green.

* * *

Below their guest quarters, beneath the earth, there was a large hall that acted as both funeral hall and cemetery. They stood among wooden grave sticks, all looking at Fort Condor's undertaker, Bonavent Allworth, as he announced why they were there.

"I've never been to a proper funeral before," Cloud had admitted the night before to Aeris.

"What about your father?" she had asked.

He hadn't remembered. He was too young, he wagered.

Bonavent gave a small eulogy, as he was one of Wedge's three brothers. Next was the general Pompey Allworth II, named after Wedge's grandfather. The general was as thick as Wedge, but of muscle, not of fat. Cloud supposed such thoughts were indecent of him. Pompey began a story from their childhood, but broke down into tears before finishing. He cowered back into the crowd as Boris Allworth approached the grave stick of Wedge, of which all eyes were drawn to.

Boris turned to face the crowd, whose eyes were teary. He found his own vision was blurred as well.

"When Wedge was born, he took such a long time getting out, I wondered if he would be ever born at all." The opening joke got a short laugh from most, but the chortles were clouded in grief. "When he died... when he died... I suppose that's why we're here, because my son is dead. We can... share stories, laugh, cry together, as we have when so many of us have died... Wedge is now among the dozens of us in the stars, watching over us always... let this be comfort to you, as I know it is to me."

Aeris shifted uncomfortably.

"And remember that one day, after this long war is behind us, or when the mercy of the enemy claims us from our fate, that we may again meet Wedge's smiling face... oh god... Our resolve will be stronger than ever, for to know that Wedge is a casualty of our war, and while he wasn't here in Fort Condor, the enemy of our Planet remains the same wherever we tread. Wedge died protecting this world... he died... he died."

* * *

When they left the funeral hall, Cloud noticed several men climbing up into the Fort from the main entranceway.

"Who are these people?" Cloud asked.

"Mercenaries," Pompey Allworth said, brushing past Cloud, "hired to come protect the Condor."

"The garrison advances!" someone shouted from a room above them.

"Now?" General Pompey cried, "all men willing to fight join me at the top of the mountain! Those who fight will triumph!"

"Our leave will be postponed," Cloud decided, "I'm going up."

"Cloud!" Boris warned, "Are you sure you would risk death here?"

"Wedge faced death on our behalf," Cloud agreed, "I will face it today, but I will not die here, not before I finish what I started."

* * *

The garrison gathered at the base of the mountain, they were all experienced warriors, massively armoured with scales of the Gongagan grand horns and each carrying a strong thick weapon.

Villagers volunteered and wore shoddy armour, standing at the top of the mountain behind an azure steel backdrop, with the long winged feathers of the Condor. Between the two small armies there was a steep slope, a dangerous fall, and the only way up that the garrison knew of.

Cloud climbed through the hole in the top of the mountain, concealed by a wooden shack. General Pompey stood in the shack, looking down at the garrison.

"So you've decided to avenge your friend."

"The man who killed Wedge is dead," Cloud said, "I'm avenging those I killed six years ago."

Aeris was close behind, struggling with the rope. Cloud helped her up, and they both assisted Barret, who's one arm wasn't adept at climbing.

Tifa had no problem getting up. They ran out of the shack and joined the villagers and the mercenaries.

"Hear this!" the general from the other side, "All villagers leave the mountain by order of President Rufus Shinra."

"Not before we can be assured that the Condor will be safe," General Pompey called down.

"Then we will take the mountain by force!"

The garrison gave a sturdy war cry. They were in far greater number than when Cloud had assisted them six years ago. Under Rufus' rule, undeniably, the emphasis was on war, not money.

The first warrior took a step up the mountain, but something hit him from the side. From where they were, it looked like nothing more than a red blur, perhaps a fireball.

"Red XIII!" Aeris shouted.

Running up to meet them, Red XIII dashed, his long lions tail was waving behind him, the hair on the tip always moving as if it was on fire.

"I saw the garrison coming," Red XIII said, and the fact that he could talk startled the other fighters, "I came around the mountain."

"A creature that talks?" a native gasped.

"He's on our side!" Barret assured them, chuckling a bit at the awkwardness of it all. They would have to deal with that a lot, now that Red XIII was traveling with them.

The garrison was in close pursuit, and the mercenaries took their chance to charge.

The five travelers ran alongside them, weapons bared. Barret stopped halfway down and began to fire ahead of them, but the bullets had traveled too long and hadn't pierced through the armour - the thick, exotic beast scales. Barret dropped his arm and continued to run.

Leaping on a warrior, Red XIII brought him down, sliding down the hill on top of him. Trying to throw him off by waving his spear around, the Shinra fighter lost his horned helmet, which rolled off and out of sight as they slid down too fast.

They slid down the declivity, and the warrior began to scream. His armour had been scraped away by the mountain, and the rocks began to rip holes in his back. The weight of Red XIII kept him sliding and made the sharper rocks pierce him even deeper. One in particular hit a nerve in his neck, which killed him. Red XIII leapt off of the dead Shinra warrior and found himself behind the rest.

'_Perfect'_, the beast thought, and ran to attack from behind.

The two small armies clashed, swords met spears, fists met flesh, and the battle was underway. Cloud had stabbed a warrior right through the collarbone, and jumped onto his chest to pull the lodged sword out. As it came out, the man fell. As Cloud fell with him, he brought the sword down on another, who lived to kill a volunteer before Aeris gave him a blow to the side of the head with her metal staff.

They were still outnumbered, but barely now. Barret had just shot one right through the nose and into the sinus cavity, and he now squirmed on the dirt, screaming horribly.

Tifa was facing a hard time battling one warrior in particular, who had given her many scratches with his spear. Finally, she grabbed his spear and lifted herself up with it, delivering him a kick in the temple with her spiked boot. He fell to the ground and she threw the spear at another enemy, who caught it in the chest.

Aeris had killed two already without spilling a drop of blood. Gracefully swinging her staff about her, she was impenetrable. Every shot that was thrown at her was blocked, as if she was using the very air to predict the attacks. Soon she had four men on her. Each was giving her an incredible amount of hits. Each attacked once, some twice a second. She blocked each deftly without hesitation. When she found her chance, she delivered a slight blow to the stomach or chest and continued blocking. This went on for a while until the warriors were too tired to keep up, and she swung her staff all around her, striking each in the head.

Aeris had told Cloud, just before they reached Kalm, that the Planet was trying to connect with her. When they left the Wastelands around Midgar, the ground became fertile, and the last Cetra confessed that she began to hear voices. Nameless, wordless, voiceless voices. At this moment, Aeris seemed to be in perfect harmony with all living things, while killing at the same time. Oddly enough, it seemed to work. She breathed slowly, inhaling and exhaling as if lying in a warm bath. But the metal staff flung about her, striking oncoming enemies and barely missing allies with the greatest of ease. She didn't even seem to be looking.

Medics had begun to climb the mountain and one of them was healing the first Grand Horn, who had survived Red XIII's ambush. Cloud thought about killing the medics, but he thought it would be best if he let them live. Shinra didn't seem to have much honour, and he wanted to keep some, if not much then at least a little, for himself.

"Let the medics live!" ordered Cloud, as Barret aimed at them. Barret nodded and instead shot-dead the warrior who was being operated on.

After shouting the order to Barret, Cloud felt a spear coming in his direction. Something in his head warned him. Intangible, yet undeniable, it shouted:

_**Duck!**_

And he had. The spear flew right past where his neck had been. Cloud stabbed the enemy in the knees and pulled back quickly, letting the warrior roll legless down the cliff.

Cloud got up and another enemy was upon him.

The battle raged on for two hours. There were no men left in Shinra's garrison, save for the medics. On the side of Fort Condor, seven survived. Five of them were the travelers. The mercenaries received their pay from General Allworth and left immediately in their dune buggy.

"You're Wedge's brother, right?" Aeris asked General Pompey after their wounds had been healed. They sat in the bar, Red XIII had no trouble jumping down into the mountain, and he sat by Aeris' side as she patted him on the nose.

"I'm the eldest, yes. There is Bonavent and Bloke as well."

"Bloke?"

"The guardian of the stone, you met him first of all."

"Is that why he didn't come to the ceremony?" Tifa asked, "Because he was guarding the stone?"

"If that gives you comfort, you can blame duty for his absence. I blame it on a lack of fraternity," the General turned from them and addressed his growing legion of mercenaries.

Barret and Boris were walking towards them together, Barret toted a large pack over one shoulder, for it wouldn't reach all the way to the other. He was talking solemnly to Wedge's father.

"We'll be off, now," Barret said to the party.

"What about your mercenaries?" Tifa asked, "What about your war?"

"You have your own battles to fight against Shinra," Boris replied, "Take these rations with you, it's a two-day walk to Junon Harbour. I have given Barret two tents to tide you over. Look carefully for the harbour, though, it's hidden in the shadows of a sheer cliff at the water's edge. And take care when moving through the East Gate Woods, there's word of an attacker there, preying on travellers like you."

"We're no ordinary travellers," Cloud said smugly.

"I can see that by your materia crystals," Boris sighed, "I would offer them to you, in payment for your deeds today, but we've recently been robbed of our materia. There are thieves about in more places than just the Wastelands, I'm afraid."

"We won't be needing pay," Cloud said. Aeris put her head gently on his shoulder, as if agreeing with him.

"Very well, may the stars bless your journey."

"Thank you, Mr. Allworth," Tifa said, "Let's go."


	46. Book 2: The Materia Hunter

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 14**

**The Materia Hunter**

They traveled until nightfall, when Cloud and Barret had broken out the liquor that Boris had given them. They cooked a few cans of soup over a fire and passed out in their respective tents, Aeris insisted that males and females sleep apart. Red XIII slept outside, watching for rabid animals.

Tifa was up first, as was the tradition of late. They were at the border of the East Gate woods, the thin stretch of trees that separated the Woodlands and the Junon province.

Aeris still slept under their blanket, the ribbon in her hair was undone, and she clutched to it. Tied in her ribbon was a materia stone paler than the usual green, and Aeris had told Tifa it was a useless stone, and that she kept for sentimental reasons only.

Equipment, clothing and items were in the corner of the tent. Barret's enormity prevented the men from putting their equipment in their own tent, and Tifa had to rummage through the piles to find what she needed.

Slipping on her clothes and gloves, Tifa noticed her own green materia crystal reflecting the morning's light into her eyes.

For four years she had known about her ability to control materia. When the crystal orb was near to her, she could conjure fire.

To do so seemed natural to her, despite its recent development. Closing her eyes, she sensed the materia's power with every fiber of her being. She did not have to speak, she simply concentrated on where the power was taking her. Then, she simply chose the target, as if circling an object in a drawing. The magic would flow then towards it. Once it left her, she still controlled it. She decided how powerful, how fast, how hot it was and how long it lasted.

The only catch, was that using this power often made her very, very tired. Magic was a last resort, or a first resort if the enemy was far away.

Aeris awoke, and blinked at Tifa.

"Good morning," Aeris said, her voice scratchy but cheerful.

Barret called over angrily from the adjacent tent, "tryin' to sleep here!"

Tifa counted their items. Four phoenix downs, ten potions, nine empty flasks of liquor, one tranquil elixir, one tent, one large pack. Two hungover men, a beast and a woman.

Cloud had two materia, which sat remained inside the spherical hollows in his massive Buster Sword. One stone conjured the magic of lightning, the other of ice. Inside Aeris's staff was the stone with the power to heal, and she used it effectively.

Red XIII had a green materia in his hair clip that stayed with him always. Like Tifa, the beast had an affinity for fire magic. That made six materia stones altogether.

"Wake up, boys," Tifa called, "If we leave now, we'll make it to Junon by nightfall."

"Give me a minute," Cloud huffed.

"Red XIII can carry the pack," Tifa said, "the rest of us should be on the lookout for enemies."

The sun rose to full light, and they set out for a warm winters walk.

Barret was especially displeased with the light this morning, squinting and cursing, and Cloud never had cared much for bright lights. Not since his arrival in Midgar late December. Tifa figured it had something to do with the events of five years ago.

After a few miles north, the sun was above them and they looked upon a thin but long forest that spanned as far as they could see. Walking through it would take an hour, perhaps less. Without hesitation, they moved inside the bush.

The trees in the forest were thin, and the light shone through them almost constantly. The more they walked, however, the more trees they came upon. The bushes and plants they had avoided before were now covering the ground. They were in the center, it could only get better.

Tifa suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and she fell unconscious.

* * *

Tifa collapsed between the trees and Cloud scrambled towards her. He found a four-point shuriken on the ground next to her. Picking it up, he held it up to his face. 

The round handle was as large as his head, and the four blades that extended out in their separate directions were as long as his forearm.

"Where did this come from?" Cloud asked.

His reply came from amongst the trees, but not by a voice. Before he could react, two boots had hit him in the face and he was down. Leaping off him, the attacker retrieved her shuriken and hopped into the center of a small clearing.

Cloud looked at her.

She was a girl, and she was young, a teenager. Her tank top was green and rose above her midriff, and her beige shorts were very short, and tight. She was barely considered a woman, yet seemed to flaunt her underdeveloped body. The truth of the matter was, she used such little clothing to provide more movement when preying on travelers. Over her left arm she had an ornamental sleeve typical of Wutaian tradition, if her skin color and thin eyes had not given it away.

She shouted at them in her language, but none of them could speak her language so her cussing was lost in translation. Trying again in common, she shouted, "Come and get me!"

"Now that I understand!" Barret shouted, and fired a few rounds at her. Jumping effortlessly away from the fire, the girl bounded off of a tree and kicked Barret in the jaw.

Aeris was helping Tifa regain consciousness, but the materia hunter plucked the useless materia out of Aeris' hair.

"Give that back!" Aeris shouted, standing up and pulling her full metal staff out of the hidden area behind her (an area no one had seemed to find yet).

"Make me!" the materia hunter taunted, and grabbed a branch. Without delay, she swung herself into the leaves and vanished.

Silence fell upon them for a long time. They waited for her return. Cloud knew she would be back. In the meanwhile, they concentrated on getting Tifa back to full alacrity, and Aeris looked at Barret's jaw, which seemed fine. The girl was fast, but weak.

* * *

"That materia stone," Aeris sighed, "It was my mothers." 

Aeris' real mother was named Ifalna. Hojo, now Shinra's top scientist, knew a lot about her mother, as he performed experiments on her for years before they escaped Shinra. All that she had left behind was the useless materia.

It had been nearly ten minutes. Aeris just didn't look normal without the useless stone in her hair. Cloud examined her with much curiosity. Something was amiss about her. The pale white materia had been a permanent ornament on her. The materia hunter, if rumour held true, would notice its evanescent ornamental status and give it back to them.

Surely enough, the materia hunter landed in front of them within the next ten minutes.

"This materia is useless!" she screamed, and threw it at Aeris. The materia clocked the flower girl in the head and she fell into the bushes.

Cloud drew his sword and knocked the materia hunter's oncoming shuriken from its path toward his face. Angry, the girl ran towards him, her fists bared, but Cloud moved the sword to meet her punch. Her fist struck the side of Cloud's steel, and she drew it back in pain. Cloud went to hit her with the brunt of his blade, but she was too quick. She dove for her weapon and held on to it.

The weapon, at the base of each blade there was a small spherical indent; each one had an orb inside. The four materia stones were four different colors. One was green, the other blue, the other yellow and the last was purple. When she grabbed her weapon, the green stone glowed and Aeris' staff suddenly flew out of her hands and into the hands of the Materia Hunter.

"What the-" Barret started. The girl grabbed the weapon and dropped her shuriken. Suddenly, the restoration materia that Aeris had placed on her weapon began to glow.

The bushes around the materia hunter's feet began to shake, as if from the girl was emitting a short but powerful wind.

"Restore?!" she suddenly screamed, "don't make me laugh, I already have two of these!"

Throwing the staff aside, the materia hunter once again reached for her weapon, but Barret shot her in the leg. She cried out and stumbled back, dropping her weapon.

"Betcha want that materia now, dontcha?!" Barret shouted, shooting the other leg.

Bullet ridden, the young girl sprawled out onto the grass. She lay there panting for a while.

Cloud walked and picked up Aeris' weapon out of the foliage.

"Greed," Red XIII said, "a perfect example of human nature."

"Man..." said the materia hunter, "I can't believe I lost."

"Get used to it, kid," Cloud said, "I'll heal your wounds if you scram."

Without waiting for a response, Cloud closed his eyes and attempted to tap into Aeris' materia. The holes in the attacker's leg closed, but the bullets were still inside. She wouldn't die from led poisoning, for the bullets were made of blood, not led.

"Kid?!" she spat, rubbing her bare leg, "I'm sixteen and a woman, and more than able to take you on. You jerk!" she grabbed her weapon and leapt to her feet, "you spiky-headed jerk! One more time, let's go one more time!"

"Not interested," Cloud said, tossing the staff back to Aeris, where it once again disappeared somewhere behind her.

"Thinking of running away?" the materia hunter shouted, punching the air, "Stay and fight! Fight I said!"

Cloud took a few steps north.

"What's the matter?" she yelled at him, "you're pretty scared, huh?"

"…Petrified," Cloud said sarcastically.

"Thought so," laughed the materia hunter, not knowing that the joke was entirely on her. "What do you expect with a person of my skills?"

Cloud did not stop walking, nor did he turn to face her. Instead, she began to follow him, talking herself up as the forest grew wider.

Suddenly, she took a jump that sailed her through that air and she landed catfooted in front of Cloud. The yellow materia on her Shuriken glowed. Cloud would never admit that he was impressed with her skills, but he was.

"Well," said the materia hunter, "Good luck to you too. If you feel up to it, we can have another round, later!"

She turned and began to walk away from them. She didn't get two steps away when she stopped and turned around, "I'm going to leave," she lied, "I mean it!"

Cloud sighed, and played along, "Wait a second."

"What is it?" she asked, walking towards them again. "You want me to join you 'cause I'm so good, right? You want me to go with you?"

"That's right," Cloud said.

"What?!" Barret shouted, "she tried to kill us all an' take our materia!"

"What do you care?" she shouted at him, "Only Wutaians, SOLDIERs and Ancients can use materia, not a redneck like you!"

"Shu'up! I ain't no redneck!"

"Barret, please!" Cloud hushed, and then he turned to the materia hunter, "That's right, come with us."

"Thought so," she laughed in triumph, "you put me in a spot. But if you want me that bad, I guess I can't refuse. All right, I'll go with you!"

"Great, let's hurry," Cloud said and moved along towards the end of the woods.

"Wait!" she said, "I haven't even told you my name! I'm Yuffie, good to meetcha!"

She followed them out of the woods, but Barret always walked behind her. He didn't much trust her, and wanted to look out for everyone. He felt uneasy about her, and could swear he heard snickering coming from the new addition to the team.

"Nyuk nyuk nyuk..."

Barret shook his head. Cloud was sure changing. The hard mercenary, allowing a nobody to enter the group? He got the sinking suspicion that he would spend many nights with one eye open.


	47. Book 2: Jenova's Arm

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 15**

**Jenova's Arm**

A minute, final adjustment was made to the lapel of Rufus's white trenchcoat. The crewman looked over the president's face, scanning for blemishes or errors of any sort. There were none, Rufus was a goddamn model of comliness.

There was just the issue of the orange hair, which kept swinging down in front of his eyes no matter how much hairspray and gel they applied to it. The crewman moved to fix it but Rufus was quicker, gliding his fingers along his forehead until the carrot-coloured strands relented and took their place atop his head.

"Are we ready, Mr. President?" asked the director. Rufus nodded, and the hair fell back infront of his eyes.

The tiny red light on top of the camera blipped on and Rufus stroked the hair away from his eyes. He smiled at the camera.

"Hello, citizens on Midgar, and citizens of the Planet. I am Rufus Shinra, the new president of Shinra Incorporated. It is my duty to regretfully inform you that my father was tragically killed last Sunday at the hands of the rebel group AVALANCHE, led by the now infamous Barret the Blackhearted. One of the members, an ex-SOLDIER named Cloud Strife also gave me a considerable wound. Should you meet someone of this name, please report him to the authorities.

As your new president, I feel I should address a few rumours floating around at this time. The first is that the ex-general known as Sephiroth is alive. I would like to attack these rumours head on and assure that there is no grey area here - the general is dead. His revival is a fool's fantasy, nothing more, and these rumours should be discredited at once.  
The official burial for President Shinra will be this evening as his body is laid to rest here at Shinra Headquarters. The funeral will be televised and his body will be preserved and on display until further notice. Since his departure, I have taken over duties as President. At a time of such radical change, not only in our companies but all over the world, I ask that you please bare with us and continue to give us your complete support. With the death of Shinra comes the birth of a new era for the world. Our children, and our children's children will sing the praises of our glories. Fear not..."

Rufus stopped. He almost laughed, but he knew that he was on film. He couldn't laugh, he couldn't even smirk at the irony of it all.

"Fear not," he repeated, more solemnly, "of the dangers we face. The tide is turning and you can be assured that I will not make the same mistakes as my father did. Thank you and goodnight."

The camera turned off and Rufus reclined, "That wasn't so hard."

"Pack it up!" The director shouted.

The Turks helicopter approached the launchpad. Rufus spun his chair around and looked out the glass wall. Tseng slid open the helicopter door and waved through the window at Rufus. The president went outside to meet them, careful not to rip his newly stitched coat. Tseng jumped out nimbly as the helicopter touched down.

"Hello, Mr. President!" Tseng shouted, "are you feeling better!"

"Yes!" Rufus said, "thank Rude for me once more, if he hadn't been around I would have never recovered!"

"Yes, well, that's more than we can say for Reno!"

"Come in!" Rufus said, "Bring everyone!"

Rude and Elena jumped out of the helicopter and walked into the Shinra Headquarters. The helicopter shut down and all was quiet. Rufus went to his desk, "Anna," he buzzed, "send Heidegger and Reeve up here."

"Right away, sir!" crackled the intercom. Anna had been promoted after President Shinra's personal secretary had been killed by Sephiroth, and her voice sounded cheery and lively. Rufus sat at his desk and the Turks stood at the other end.

"Derith's regime is crucifying innocent people," Tseng began.

"They're not innocents if they helped Cloud get to Corneo. Derith knows how to control masses, crime rates in Sector 6 I hear are at an all time low."

'_Unless you count war crimes,'_ Tseng thought, but he would never utter it, for Rufus's patience was thin, his wrath inconceivable.

"Any word on Sephiroth?" the President asked, "Tell me everything."

"He's heading towards Junon Harbour," Tseng said, "he used the Mythril Mines and killed the Midgar Zolom on his way through. We know because he dropped this."  
Tseng held something in his hands, and he threw it on the table. Rufus recognized it immediately.

"This is Jenova's arm," he said.

"That's right. Sephiroth must have dropped it."

"If he knows we have it, he'll be back here, and then we're all dead," Rufus said, "we have to take it somewhere safe."Heidegger arrived at the desk. "Mr. President. The fiftieth garrison at Tooth Rock has fallen to the villagers at Fort Condor, only the medics survived."

"You know, if I didn't live on the upper plate," Rufus sighed angrily, "I would assume that everyone in the world is against us." He buzzed for his secretary, "Anna, where is Reeve?"

"_I'm sorry, sir_!" cracked Anna's voice, it was frantic, "_He's not in his office_!"

"Heidegger, I need you to go find Reeve and tell him to meet us here."

"Reeve?" Heidegger asked, "What do you want with that little jerk?"

"I want you to go fetch him, Heidegger," Rufus smirked.

Tseng sensed Heidegger's irritation and offered to go in his place. Rufus nodded and Tseng left Rude and Elena to brief the president on their encounter in the Mythril Mines.

* * *

Reeve Tuesti was sprawled on the ground, poring over old maps and blueprints. His paperweights were made of things he had found around the room. An old book he had plucked off the shelf, with a cool blue leather binding and gold letters that read: A History of the Shinra Space Program Vol. 1. His cup of tea, which had long gone cold; the Gongagan peppermint floated in the steam-less, green water, it was too unappetizing to drink, but it would hold down a corner of the map well enough. The other two corners were held by his two hands, he could feel the texture carpet underneath the yellowing paper. The map was over fifty years old. He sighed.

"I thought I'd find you here," Tseng said as the door made the familiar hissing noise as it slid open. Reeve said nothing in reply. Tseng came in and the door hissed closed behind him.

"The President has been trying to reach you."

"I'm on a break."

"He wants you upstairs right away."

Reeve was quiet for a moment. Tseng looked down at the book. "That's an unusual title to belong on the Urban Development Library."

"Yeah, Palmer must have put it in the wrong spot."

Tseng looked at the parchment. It was a map of Upper Sector 7.

"Feeling nostalgic?"

"Sector 7 was the first Sector to be completed. I don't know why I wanted to start working on it first, but that's the way it happened. I was so young, and ambitious. I wanted to create a place for people to live, so they could move onto the plate and not bear all the construction happening around their old towns. I remember walking down Slalom Avenue for the first time," he said, tracing his finger along a street that ran parallel to the city's edge. "Sector 7 – along with 1 and 8 – were the first to be completed. They… were the first to be completed so the roads were made with dark brick. We didn't start straight paving them until we finished Sector 6, but they were brick for Sector 7. I remember walking down Slalom Avenue for the first time. When I think back, I can remember the brick, and to me, now, it seems old, antiquated. I think I remember, now, though, even though I was young, how new it felt, it smelled. My feet were the first to tread on the bricks of Slalom Avenue. I was alone; the lights had just come on. The city was empty – the crews had moved on to building the Sector 6 pillar. It was such a strange sensation, standing in a place you've seen and drawn on parchment. I felt very small, but I was the only person there so I was important. But I felt very small – very overwhelmed at the magnificence of the city – this city, a city I conceived and nurtured and treated like it was a part of me. I couldn't understand why people didn't want to move up here. Why they wanted to stay down below when we blocked out the stars. I can still remember the name of the first family to move up to Sector 7, the first residents of Midgar. I think Domino presented them with an honorarium in the weeks that followed. And now he's dead, and they're dead, and this city, my baby, can't stop from getting bombed all to hell by terrorists. You know? I thought that the first thing Rufus would do was start rebuilding. How foolish."

"We've got Sephiroth to deal with now."

"Yes, we've got the whole rest of the world to deal with now. I know what he wants, and it's in my office. We'll stop on the way up."

"There's a piece of materia sitting on the shelf here."

"Yeah, I bought it."

"You bought it? Where?"

Reeve looked up for the first time. "A materia shop. Down _there_."

"Go there often, do you?"

"It perplexes me. I don't make a habit of it. That materia controls time."

"Can you use it?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

"It was expensive enough."

"That's the thing about materia. Most shop owners will just make up materia properties because they know the rich folks are only buying them for ornamental purposes. It's probably a basic fire spell."

"Fire is essential to survival."

"That's probably why the Ancients remembered it so well. Fire materia is everywhere. I'll have Rude check it out for you."

"Yeah, sure," Reeve dropped his head and looked at the map again.

"Rufus almost sent Heidegger to come get you."

Reeve exhaled curtly.

"You two disagree because you're Wutaian?"

"Half Wutaian, actually," Reeve said, "My father was a travelling martial artist from Kor. My mother was a Kalm traveller."

"My father was from Kor, too," Tseng smiled.

Reeve looked up again, startled. "What? You don't look… how did I not know?"

"Turks don't have the luxury of last names," Tseng held up his hand, "Nor fingerprints." Reeve saw that his fingers had been burned smooth. "We've more in common than you think."

"A Wutaian heritage isn't something to pine for nowadays, if Heidegger's distaste didn't convince you of that. They're a savage, barbaric race. Just look at how they treat women. Women can't be soldiers. Women can't be leaders. Women are to get pregnant only when a man wants."

He stopped suddenly. He stood up slowly. He watched as the two corners of the map previously pinned by his hands curled towards each other. Tseng knew that now was the time to be patient and wait. They stood quietly in the sixty-second floor library for a long time.

"Let's go get Rufus' damn toy," Reeve finally said, and they left.

* * *

Heidegger's laughter stopped and he became increasingly tense as Tseng and Reeve stepped up to the presidential desk. "You asked me to come see you?"

"Yes, Reeve," Rufus smiled, "Heidegger and I have been discussing the situation at Tooth Rock. What is your take on it?"

"Fort Condor, sir? It's a lose-lose."

"Let's take it!" Heidegger bleated.

Reeve grimaced, "Don't let him prey on your ambitions, sir. This is not a fight that the public can get behind. A small group of farmers who decide to shut off their own power? They're too likeable. Other than that, it's a heavily fortified position, the Air Force can't get to it without blowing up the reactor, and as a land war? It's literally an uphill battle, it's been a six-year long campaign with such highlights as SOLDIER's _only_ military defeat and may I remind you that it was also Sephiroth's only military defeat."

Rufus shook his head. "That's because we used to make the stupid mistake of sending SOLDIERs in twos. Let's bring back all first-class SOLDIERs from their missions, throw in the whole army and take it in a day."

"With all due respect, Mister President, that's a terrible idea."

"Why?"

"Because not only are you risking the reactor, you're also risking the Condor, which will get the environmental lobby on your ass. Not to mention the fact that you would be publicly slaughtering an entire settlement of our own people."

"They shut off a reactor and killed negotiators. They're not our people. They haven't been our people for six years."

"Yeah well killing them isn't going to solve it, because it doesn't matter how charred the landscape is, you're going to have a survivor or two—yes, Heidegger, yes! I'm going to bring up Corel, and I'm going to bring up Gongaga, and I'm going to bring up Nibelheim. Because when Cathal Shinra did that, he created criminals like Barret Wallace, and Tifa Lockheart, and Jessie whatsername. And I'm not saying that we were in the wrong when we did that, because I think we were in the right. And I'm not saying that their actions were tolerable, or forgivable, but that is the _consequence_ of attacking your own people. That's just a fact. And it hasn't bid well for us in the past."

"Nibelheim wasn't our fault."

"If Sector 7 is any indication, Mister President, public perception decides what is whose fault."

Rufus frowned at this, but Reeve continued.

"Fortunately for us, there's no known way of getting in or out of Tooth Rock without running into the fiftieth garrison, and they clearly have limited power enough not to broadcast themselves, so for all intents and purposes, this is a silent war. If we do as we've been doing for six years, they'll eventually run out of supplies and die on their own, and we can take it afterwards. But if you divert the entire military to a large-scale operation, you're going to attract needless attention to it, attention that is not going to please the public. This isn't Wutai. These people don't speak a foreign language or have deplorable laws, and they don't want to attack us. That's going to make it very hard to get the public behind it. And those that survive – and there _will_ be survivors, they will be pissed enough to come after us where it hurts, and there are going to be enough disgruntled slumlings to follow them when they start leading."

"We'll make sure there aren't any survivors, then."

"Mister President, not even a week ago we destroyed two cities to get at AVALANCHE and they're still at large. And aside from the allegations that Sephiroth is back, AVALANCHE is still our biggest threat. How well do you think we'll fare against two, or three, or more factions?"

"I'll take it into consideration."

"Permission to speak freely, Mister President."

"You haven't been doing that already?... Go ahead."

"We need an enemy. Cathal had the same ideals as you when he started, but the edge he had was an enemy. People can unite if there is something to unite for or against. It's the curse of peacetime. People are restless, they need to know they're doing something. Moving forward. Right now, you have people all over the place because there is nowhere to focus their violent nature. Before the Sephiroth story leaks, the only thing people can be united against is AVALANCHE. I mean, they just killed the President and almost killed you. You're already in public favour. I'm sure that Heidegger would agree with me on this, this one thing. You have to milk AVALANCHE while you can."

Rufus nodded. "Heidegger?"

"I agree, but when the teat runs dry, I'll be waiting by the phone."

Rufus furrowed his brow. "Reeve, I'd like to speak more on this. You're going to Junon Harbour with us. We need to get Jenova's arm as far away from Sephiroth as possible."

"Sir," Tseng started, "Sephiroth is headed towards Junon Harbour."

"He's probably coming over the mountains and that will lead him right here. If we can get to Junon, we can use the airship and fly it somewhere he will never tread. We can return it to the lab at Nibelheim."

Rufus touched the unopened letter on his desk. He knew it was Hojo's resignation letter, but he hadn't opened it yet. Perhaps not wanting to believe just yet.

"With all due respect, sir," Reeve asked, "am I to escort the package to the West Continent from Junon?"

"No, you are to deliver it to Junon only, then return here with the Turks. I will be traveling to the western continent and will ensure its arrival myself. I need you back here after the send-off, Reeve. Anna," Rufus said, now into the intercom, "are you still there?"

"Yes, Mister President?"

"Can you ship up that crate that Reeve had packaged?"

"Yes sir, it will be up right away!"

He turned back to the Turks, "When we get to Junon, put this arm inside of a cargo crate aboard the _Highwind_. If Sephiroth or AVALANCHE shows up, I don't want them finding it."

The Turks nodded. They all stood and went to the helicopter. As the blades began to spin, Rufus stood for a moment, his trench coat flapping about in the wind. He looked at the drying pool of blood that he had spilled due to Cloud. At his very inauguration, he learned that being the president of the world would not be very easy. He had to adapt, like he had been adapting his entire life.

He entered the helicopter and flew away from the helipad.

Reeve sat across from him. "I should let you know," he said, "that we've been getting reports of SOLDIERs being hospitalized across the globe."

"Hospitalized? Injuries from their missions?"

"No, sir. The reports have been strangely similar. They've been showing flu-like symptoms. This obviously isn't my department, but with Hojo gone my staff has been going through his books on mako poisoning. It's nothing serious, my office will keep you appraised. You should rest, sir, flights are some of the only time the president has to sleep."

Rufus leaned his head against the window, his orange hair pressing against the glass. He looked at the Shinra Headquarters, the exact centre of Midgar. Centre of the centre of the world. He slept.

* * *

In the dream, he was standing on Sector 7's top plate, his white overcoat in perfect condition, before Cloud had cut a nasty hole in its side. Rhonda was there, beautiful Rhonda. She ran to him and threw her arms around him. They kissed, and they snaked in the street as the skies peeled back and sunlight shone on them.

As Rhonda cried out in pleasure, the ground shook and they found themselves falling. Sector 7 was collapsing, a city falling atop another city.

Rufus felt scared, as a child in the dark. The clouds returned - they rained fire and sparks while Rhonda began to float away from him. His feet were stuck to the asphalt, sticky with their sex it held him in place. He reached up and grabbed for her hand, but she was too far away. She looked at him, her mouth open but too petrified to scream.

And then the top plate hit the ground, and Rufus, Rhonda and millions of innocents died. And in death, he felt fear.

And suddenly, there he stood in the Shinra Headquarters, looking down at the desolation. He was his father now, the mastermind behind the destruction. He looked down at the chaos and he smiled, demons floating about the room, laughing and dancing with him. And he became his fear. The demons in the dark swallowed him and in that moment he awoke.

* * *

"Ah!" he jumped, ripping his head away from the window. They were over mountains now, far away from Midgar. His hair was matted in his face, and he reached up and fixed it. He looked at his hands briefly, checking for any blood that had crossed over from his nightmare. Rain batted against his window, drumming in the rhythm of the horrors in his dream.

"Everything alright?" asked Reeve.

"Fine," Rufus shrugged off his fear. Fear was a weapon, and a weapon of his.


	48. Book 2: Bear

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 16**

**Bear**

Yuffie wasn't three miles north of East Gate Woods before she had begun to complain. She was hungry, her legs hurt, she didn't like Barret, and so on. She threatened to leave any time, but Cloud wouldn't bite to her compliment-fishing.

She did succeed in making Barret very irritated, which kept her with the party (on the grounds that Barret's conniptions were the source of much gaiety).

To the north, the sky turned grey in the afternoon, and they could see the billowing smoke rising from the other side of the mountains. The smoke was mako waste, spewed towards the heavens from Midgar's operational reactors. Even from this far south, they could plainly see the tumour in the sky that grew slowly as the artificial storm spread across the lands like a festering malignancy.

From the sea to the west, the wind was eerie and silent.

"Rain's coming," Red XIII sensed.

Cloud looked north to the south face of the Midgar Mountains, "There's a cave just up there, we'll take shelter until it relents."

Tifa turned to Yuffie, "you've got some strangely coloured stones in your weapon."

"Materia," she feigned uninterest, "I can use it naturally because I'm Wutaian."

"I can use materia," Aeris said, "and I'm not Wutaian."

"Oh, I see," Yuffie sighed, "You're all banding together because you're those rare types that can use magic."

"Not all of us," Barret interjected.

"No one was talking to you, big guy," Yuffie snorted.

"What I meant to ask was," Tifa pressed, "I've never seen any materia other than green."

"I was in SOLDIER," Cloud volunteered, "and I didn't even know there was any colour but green."

The young woman laughed, "of _course_ there are more colours than green! Holy cow you mainlanders are such ignoramuses." She pulled out her shuriken and held it out for them to see as they made their way to the cave's opening.

"This green materia I hope we're all familiar with," Yuffie giggled, "Magic materia, when you use it you can cast a spell. Any questions?"

Barret raised his gun-arm sarcastically, but Yuffie ignored him, "this green orb has a floating spell inside of it, you'll remember when I stole pinkies staff here. Now, the blue one is where it gets interesting. Blue materia only work when they're near spell materia. With the blue materia, I can use the green spell in ways other than just casting it. For instance, this stone applies the elements of that ancient knowledge to my tightly formed ass, which is how I can jump around with the greatest of ease, and give Cloud here that nice black eye he's forming."

Aeris looked at Cloud's swelling face and her eyebrows furrowed with worry.  
"Oh," she said, and walked up to him. She closed her eyes and everyone felt the tug of a light cure spell coming from Aeris' materia. Cloud's black eye dissipated.

"Hey, I gotta question," Barret asked, "If we all feel it when someone casts a spell, how come we don't feel it all the time when that blue materia is in action?"

"That was a surprisingly intelligent question," Yuffie smirked, "but you're still so naïve. It's because it's not actually casting a spell, it's like automatically applied, no strings attatched. Besides, even if it were casting, it wouldn't be powerful enough to suuck yoouuu innntooo it's pooowweeeerrrr. That's because I'm so fit, I barely need it, I could kick you guys back to the Ancient days with or without materia.

"The purple one here is known as 'independent materia,' and this little beauty increases my 'ma-na.' Uhm… I don't know the word in common, but it's my spiritual adeptness to materia? In short, it makes me a kick ass sorceress."

She punched the air and gave a quick battlecry. The sky answered with the first few raindrops.

"And what's the yellow one?" Tifa asked.

"Hm? Oh this one? It's a se-cret."

They had reached the mouth of the cave. Aeris and Tifa ran undercover first and turned around to watch the rest get battered by the increasingly thick rainfall. Yuffie jumped through the girls and landed inside the cave, Cloud followed.  
It was a room sized alcove, five metres around, lit by two torches. Against the far rock wall of the mountain there was a cot, where lay sleeping an old man, fully clothed in ragged earth tones, and a hat that had been out of style since their childhood. Along the wall there leaned several mining tools, a pick, a shovel, explosives. The cave walls were adorned with tapestries made from animal hides and mythril, beautifully woven together.  
Barret came lumbering in, soaking wet from the slate sky. "Who's he?" he asked.

"A sleeping man," Cloud informed wryly, "if he's not awake, he can't kick us out."

"If he's not awake," Yuffie smiled, "he won't mind if we take what's in here!"  
There was a chest at the end of the bed made of mythril, and Yuffie grabbed the lid greedily. She was almost foaming at the mouth as she tried to open it. When it began to open, it made a loud clicking noise that, due to it's placement in the alcove, echoed along the rock walls, and the old man awoke.

"Huh?" he asked the silence. Yuffie was already behind Cloud, she had sacrificed her steal for safety behind the party leader.

"Who are you people?" he asked.

"My name is Cloud Strife, these are… my friends. We're traveling to Junon and need some shelter from the rain."

"Very well," the old man said, and rolled over, speaking in numbers, "thirty three twenty two one hundred and eleven." He rolled back over suddenly and asked, "Where are you coming from?"

"We left Midgar less than a week ago," Tifa answered, "We've since been to Kalm and Fort Condor."

"Midgar? They've completed their city, eh?" he mumbled, "fifty-five..."

"...sorry?"

"Midgar. I've been hibernating here since the mythril mine operation stopped. My name's Bear, as far back as I can remember it."

"Mythril mine operation?" Cloud asked, "the one used by Kalm? But that ended sixty years ago."

"Did it?" Bear held his hands up to his face, "Oh my, time does seem to go quickly, especially when you sleep for long years."

"You don't look a day over fifty," Aeris observed curiously.

"Thank you my dear," Bear said, "but I'm oh, must be well over one hundred and twenty by now."

They all paused, not quite sure what to make of this character. Yuffie eventually came from around behind Cloud and whispered, "You're an Orunai."  
He nodded.

"What the hell is that?" Barret asked.

"Orunai, stupid." Yuffie spat, "A rare person who has been blessed by Leviathan and given twice the lifespan of a normal person."

"Who is Leviathan?" asked Bear.

"One of the five Wutaian Gods," Yuffie explained, "but there's no need to talk about religion. You're an Orunai. Only one in a million people have this."

"Like a birth defect?" Cloud asked.

"Holy moly, listen to yourself!" Yuffie cried, "there's nothing defective about this! It's a blessing from a diety, whether you believe in him or not. I don't know why I travel around with you shmoes."

Bear had fallen asleep again.

"I guess that means we can stay," Barret sat down on a large stone and leaned his head against the rock wall behind him.

Cloud took the pack off of Red XIII and the beast lay down for a rest. He opened up the food pouch and handed out rations. He threw Red XIII's portion directly into his mouth.

"That's what you eat?" Yuffie asked, "what happened to hunting and gathering?"

"Enough killin' goin' on already," Barret said, "Don't need to bring animals into it."

"Not the way animals have been treating me," she sighed, "even the herbivores are out to get me."

"Why am I not surprised?" Red XIII sighed, smiling, or closest thing to it for a lupine beast. He closed his eye and took a nap, swallowing his meal and resting his chin on the dusty ground.

"So what's your story?" Yuffie asked Barret.

"Don't got none."

"You had to come from somewhere."

"Didn't."

"Liar."

"It don't matter. What matters is I'm fightin' for the Planet now."

"There's a word for people like you."

"Terrorist?"

"Lamebrain," Yuffie grew tired of Barret's incensement and said to Tifa matter-of-factly, "You have clawed gloves." Tifa nodded quickly. Yuffie, interested, asked, "Is it for clawing people?"

"Actually, it's for punching, but you get the idea," Tifa said slowly, uninterested.

"And these people whom you are punching, and subsequently stabbing," Yuffie prodded, "They wouldn't happen to be Shinra, would they?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I hate Shinra. Well, of course I would, I'm Wutaian."

"Well, good for you," Tifa said.

"So," Yuffie said, "spiked gloves must be pretty dangerous. What if you just want to, you know, climb things and hold people."

Tifa was suddenly silenced then, as she could only think of one person worth holding. "I have other pairs," she said, "normal gloves."

"Any mittens?" asked Yuffie with a grin.

"I say we stop this jackassery and take a rest 'fore we hit the road, see?" Barret said, "take a page out of Bear's book."

"Agreed," Cloud said, "let's recover our strength."

"I'll bet you need to, after your run in with me," she chuckled, and laid down to rest. Tifa and Aeris fell asleep with their heads leaning on one another's, but Barret and Cloud kept one eye open, watching Yuffie nod off to slumber before they let sleep take them.  
Cloud thought about his decision to invite her to follow after her attack on Tifa and Aeris. It was because of Yuffie's knowledge in materia, and her natural skills that Cloud chose to let her along with them, despite Barret's claims that she would kill them all in their sleep. Yuffie's reasons for joining them, however, were unknown. But now they were a group of six.

Aeris woke up before the rest, and got up. Tifa, who had been relying on Aeris as a pillow, shifted and fell back to sleep. Aeris moved to the cavemouth and lay on the ground with her head poking out into the rain. Her hair and forehead were soon soaked. She stared up at the sky.

_'This is the thing called rain,'_ she thought, _'It's colder than I thought it would be. For something that helps the flowers to grow, for something that isn't allowed into Midgar's cold environment, it sure is unfriendly. Why does the ocean float up into the sky? To come pelting down onto the earth. Does it want to become one with the earth? Why does the earth crumble into the sea? Does it rain too much? Does the earth want to become one with the sea? I have so many questions I want to ask the Planet, but all I can hear is it crying. And now I can feel its tears, the ocean in the sky. Cold and uninviting, just like Cloud. But surely I can warm him, like I can warm the rain. Oh, the pattern of life indelible, the weavings of this world, hidden from me. Where is my fate? Am I to remain at the bottom of the rain? Return to the slums? Will I soar above the clouds? Get to the bottom of Cloud? The bottom of the ocean, perhaps, where the earth and the sea live in unanimity. Maybe one day I will visit the bottom of the ocean. Maybe I will take Cloud with me.'_


	49. Book 2: At the Water's Edge

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**At the Water's Edge**

They continued north, out of the forest and through the valley.

"So we got the Wastelands," Barred tried to explain to Aeris, "which is all dead causa Midgar. An' we got the Grasslands, which is fulla rabid animals. An' we got the Woodlands, which is pretty much the same as the Wastelands. And new we're in Junon, see a difference?"

"No," Aeris replied solemnly. They reached the coast and kept the ocean in sight. After a few hours, they could see something on the northern horizon. It was what appeared to be a large pole sticking out of the Cliffside, reaching out west towards the ocean.

"Junon Harbour," Cloud announced. "We're not far now."

They were close approaching the giant horizontal pole that hovered over the ground, and they saw that it was not a pole at all, but a great cannon. The cannon was attached to a huge city of bronze, shining in the late afternoon sun. The city slid out of the cliffside, creating a triangular shape that dipped into the sea.

"How did you lose your arm?" Yuffie asked Barret, uninterested in Junon's majesty.

"Ain't none of yo business," Barret coughed, "So you mind y'own now."

"Jeez!" Yuffie whined. "What a bunch of losers I fell in with! I could leave at any time, you know. You'd better be nicer to me. This is no way to treat a new member of the team."

"You ain't a member of the team!" Barret turned suddenly. "You here cause you want to be, and that spiky wimp can't stand bein' alone for more than two minutes."

"Barret!" Cloud shouted suddenly, turning around. "How many enemies do you think we'll encounter in Junon?"

Barret thought. "Lots," he replied.

"Yeah," Cloud nodded. "Lots. And how many do you think, in the town after that?"

"…lots."

"See a pattern?" Cloud said roughly. "We're running pretty thin on allies here."

The group took a moment, they were remembering their fallen allies, killed at the hands of Shinra. Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, the people of the Sector 7 slums had all been killed by Shinra Inc.

"Now," Cloud said with detemination, "Yuffie's skilled enough, and she seems honest enough. And she doesn't like Shinra, that's for sure. Why make another enemy when there's no need?"

"I knew you guys were against Shinra!" Yuffie smiled.

"If you're against Shinra," Tifa said, "You're against the world. It's not an easy life."

"It's the only life I've lead, and the only one I'll ever lead," Yuffie admitted sincerely, and that endeared her to the group somewhat.

"Well then," Cloud nodded, "let's continue. This is a port, so let's get our mark before he has a chance to go anywhere else."

The closer they came to Junon, however, the less of the city they saw, as the city was elevated above ground, like Midgar. Junon was only twenty metres above ground, unlike upper Midgar's impressive fifty metre drop (a drop that Cloud knew all too well).

They came into the old town, the slums underneath. Once again were they thrown into the shocking contrast of rich on top, the poor literally beneath them.

"What happened to this town?" Cloud asked, "It's so run down."

It was in all truth. The houses were worn, and those moving in and out wore colorless clothing and bleak expressionless faces. They were those, like those in the slums back in Midgar, who had forced themselves into apathy, just to escape their situation.

One poor man in particular sat with a fish. Upon moving closer, Cloud saw that the fish was green and unappetizing. The old man seemed to have heard Cloud's comment about the state of Old Junon.

"Ever since Shinra built that city up above during the war," he said, "There's been no fish in the water! It got so polluted."

The smell of the fish washes over Cloud and he almost gagged. "So your livelihood is at risk," he understood.

"Well now, this is rare," said the fisherman, "We almost never have anyone other than the Shinra people visit this town. What's your business here, boy?"

"Have you seen a man in a black cloak move through here?"

"Nope, never seen that feller before," the fisherman replied, tossing the fish behind him.

Sephiroth wasn't here. Perhaps they had beaten him? Or maybe this man just hadn't seen him. Maybe Sephiroth was still dead! Cloud was getting frustrated; they were chasing a ghost that could very well not exist at all. For all they knew, Palmer could have killed President Shinra and stolen Jenova. The Turks might have been misinformed or leading the travelers into a trap.

"Wait," said Yuffie, "who are we looking for?"

"Sephiroth," Cloud said. He didn't need to explain any more. Yuffie had lived in Wutai during the war, she knew well who Sephiroth was.

"Looking to kill him?" she asked.

"Yup," Cloud said.

"I thought he was already dead."

"He could very well be."

Priscilla Webb was a girl of six, short for her age, and unusually dark considering the only times she saw the sun were right at sunset when it would dip below New Junon for a few minutes before splashing into the ocean – every day she would sit on the golden rocks from lunch until sunset and observe the dead ocean. The waves lapped against the stones at the water's edge leaving thin oily film as it swept back.

She was wearing next to nothing – a two piece bikini suit that served no purpose except to imitate the suits that adults wore in Costa del Sol magazines. Priscilla's breasts were made solely of baby fat, and her young stomach extended further than her bikini top. She hummed to herself, her voice lost in the sounds of the ocean. She heard a soft crunching noise behind her and she recognized it as approaching footsteps on the rocky sand.

When she turned around, she not only saw Red XIII and Barret (enough to frighten any child) but Cloud was taking point– his eyes glowing.

"Shinra," Priscilla uttered, and her voice was strangely full of hatred for one so young, "Go away."

"Hey!" Yuffie said, coming up from the rear, "Watch your mouth, kid."

"I'll say whatever I want to Shinra scum like you," Priscilla snapped and stood up.

"You got it all wrong," Barret said, and Yuffie was surprised at his sudden change in tone around the child, "We are fightin' against the Shinra."

"I don't believe you," Priscilla crossed her arms, "Get out of here!"

Cloud shrugged, "Whatever," he said, and turned to leave. This was not what they came here for. Sephiroth was not here, anyway.

"Little girl!" Red XIII said, "Look out!"

A passing ship had stirred a massive wave that swept over Priscilla and dragged her into the water. She slid away from the shore. Before Cloud could turn around again, the old fisherman was quick to jump up and run towards the beach.

"Priscilla!" he shouted.

Red XIII leapt into the water and submerged. A few moments later, he was backing out of the water – his maw gingerly around Priscilla's mid-section.

"Get away from her, you monster!" shouted the old fisherman. Red XII dragged her ashore and then stepped back, eyeing the fisherman angrily.

"This is bad," Aeris said, "you don't think she's dead, do you?"

"She's not breathing!" yelled the fisherman, holding his head to her chest. Getting up, he turned to Cloud, who stood facing them from a short distance, "Young man! Artificial respiration, now!"

"What? Mouth to mouth?" Cloud asked, and crossed his arms.

"What, you don't know how to do it?" The man asked, "Take a deep breath, and then breathe into her, damnit!"

Cloud looked at his fellow travelers. Red XIII now seemed as indifferent to the girl's condition as Yuffie. Aeris stood by, looking at the girl and her grandfather the fisherman. Barret looked around for any Shinra guards taking notice, at that moment there were none.

Tifa, however, looked straight at Cloud. Her eyes pleaded to him silently, begging him to be the hero he swore to be. In those eyes, Cloud saw himself long ago. Even five years ago. Cloud the hero, who saved the weak, and fought for justice.

He still wore the armour; he still looked like the hero he dressed up to be those years ago. Save a little girl's life. At least, try to.

He moved quickly to Priscilla and took a deep breath, when his lungs were full he pulled open her mouth and blew his air inside. He could hear the air moving down her windpipe and into her lungs, as if her body was now a mako compressor. It sounded mechanical.

Quickly bringing his head back, he filled himself with air and repeated it. After two insufflations, he checked her carotid pulse. She had begun spontaneously respirating and coughed out water. She rolled over and began to weep slowly.

Her grandfather ran to her and made sure she was going to survive. He picked her up and carried her back to the village, where he seemed certain she could recover in full.

"You're welcome!" Cloud shouted after them, and then turned to his team.

Surprisingly, he found they were all smiling at him.

"What?" Cloud asked. But really, he looked at Tifa, searching for recognition in her eyes. He found it.

The old fisherman returned within ten minutes and introduced himself as "Grampy Webb." He offered to let them spend the night and have dinner with the lot of them – even Red XIII, who seemed to bear no grudge for being called a monster.

They made their way through old town, following Grampy Webb. The derelict houses were huge, but woebegone. It was painfully apparent that Old Junon had once been a thriving fishing town, as there were piles of old business signs in heaps behind empty stores that all read "Fish."

The Webb house was two stories high with the entrance lavishly on the top floor – the only way inside was to climb the impressive staircase. Cloud surmised that once the Webb family had been aristocratic, almost. The way Grampy Webb dressed now, however, contradicted that. He wore patched clothing and an old grey cloth cap. He seemed out of place moving up such a large and gorgeous staircase to the entrance on the second floor.

Inside was as profligate as the outside – although just as full of decay. Grammy Webb was busy in the kitchen – as she had heard that they would be seating an extra six for dinner.

They sat around the extravagant table – the only thing in the house that was still perfectly preserved. It was the first time any of them had sat at a table so large. Grampy Webb explained that there were four guest bedrooms downstairs and that Grammy Webb could make a bed out of spare blankets for Red XIII and a chair for one unlucky human.

Priscilla did not join for dinner; she stayed in her room and recovered. Her grandfather would leave the table every few minutes to check on her, and then return as if nothing had happened.

They ate zemzelett steaks and mandragora salad. Zemzeletts were a large flying mammal in the Junon area, and their meat was quite tender. Mandragoras were quite often mistook for a large stalk of celery until they sprouted legs and walked away. These ones were certainly dead, as the heads had been removed and all that was left was the vegetable body.

It was a pleasure eating the salad, as Cloud hadn't had green food in a while, since they left Midgar they had mostly eaten rations, and those were just protein and carbohydrate supplements.

During the meal, Priscilla's grandparents spoke of Junon's situation. It used to be a prosperous town until ten years ago, when Shinra had built the town up above. New Junon was designed as a fortress of war, as well as a profitable port. The only way up or down, if one was traveling by foot, was through a guarded elevator on the far side of town. Only Shinra employees and New Junon residents had access to the elevator and the world above.

The war machine proved useful, as it was a turning point in the Wutai war, and it cast a shadow over Old Junon and polluted the ocean, killing the fish. Barret was more than happy to partake in this conversation and brought up several times the horrors of having an underwater mako reactor running the two cities.

After dinner, they went to the room. Barret volunteered to sleep in a chair, and Red XIII curled on the rug.

"Goodnight, all!" Yuffie hummed cheerily, and crawled into bed.

They offered their showers to them, and Cloud realized he hadn't had a proper shower since Kalm. He jumped at the chance, stepping into the silence and loneliness of the shower.

The water was oily and hard – it wasn't pleasant. Once, he postulated, it had been clean, as rich as the Webb's had been. The water was only as clean as the ocean around it – the filters were meant for salt – not radiation. He kept his shower brief, but was happy to have at least a decent rinse.

During his sleep, Cloud felt uneasy. He was not dreaming, he was simply asleep, alone in the black. Something seemed to be pulling him, drawing him west. He had a burning desire to cross the ocean now. But was Sephiroth there? Was it him he sensed?

_**...That reminds me**_

'_You again?' _Cloud thought at the voiceless message, which had returned_, 'Who are you? '_

_**You'll find out soon. But more importantly, 5 years ago... **_

'_5 Years ago... Nibelheim?'_

_**When you went to Mt. Nibel, Tifa was your guide, right? **_

'_Yeah, surprised me.'_

_**But where was Tifa other than that? **_

'_...I dunno.'_

_**It was a great chance for you two to see each other again. **_

'_...You're right.'_

_**Why couldn't you see each other alone? **_

'_...I don't know. I can't remember clearly... '_

_**Why don't you try asking Tifa? **_

'_...Yeah. '_

_**Then, get up! **_

"Hey, wake up. Wake up, Cloud!"

Sliding open his eyes, he saw Tifa's face looming over him. She looked concerned, almost worried. There was no one else in the room. Her thick black hair hung all about him, she seemed too close just to be waking him up. He shook his head and she backed away.

"Tifa," Cloud said, sitting up, "When Sephiroth and I went to Nibelheim, where were you?"

Tifa was silent, and her look of concern washed away. She backed off of his bed and looked at him from the edge of it.

"We saw each other, right?" she asked, but now there was a slight tremble in her voice.

"We saw each other once, but I was there for a week. What about the other times?"

"Cloud, it was five years ago," Tifa said, "I don't remember as clearly as you."

'_She's lying to me,' _Cloud thought, _'but why?'_

"But come quick," Tifa said, the concern coming back to her face, "Something seems strange outside."

Cloud got dressed and followed her outside, where everyone stood in a circle. There was a crispness in the air this morning, the air smelled clean, cleaner than it had yesterday. Cloud could almost hear the trumpeting of horns.

"What's this loud music?" Yuffie asked. "It's giving me a headache."

Cloud paused. There really was music? The sound of horns grew louder. It seemed to be a lively march, but it was stopped frequently and restarted, as if the musicians were rehearsing.

"Seems like somethin's goin on up there!" Barret said, and looked up at the underbelly of New Junon.

"Doesn't it seem a little strange?" Tifa asked. "Everything getting so noisy all of a sudden?"

The door to the house opened and Priscilla walked out. In both hands, she clasped something. They couldn't see what it was, but a thin chain hung from her hands as she walked towards them.

"Are you all right now?" Cloud asked the little girl, a little too cheerily for his usual taste.

"Yes, thank you for helping," Priscilla said, "I'm sorry I mistook you for the Shinra."

"That's all right," Cloud said.

"I'll give you something special!" The girl said, and opened her palms. Attached to the chain was an amulet. In the centre of the amulet was a large red orb. Upon seeing it, Yuffie's eyes went wide and Red XIII later insisted that she had drooled a little.

"It's an amulet," she said, "take good care of it, okay?"

She held it out and Cloud accepted without a second thought. He clipped the chain of the amulet to his belt so that the amulet part was right at his hip, the chain tied around holding it loosely in place.

"What's this music?" Barret asked softly. "It sure sounds lively."

"I heard they're rehearsing the reception for the new Shinra president," Priscilla said, her eyes once again growing too dark for a girl of her age.

"Rufus?!" the gruffness returned to Barret's voice. "I gotta pay my respects!"

"Grammy and Grampy told me this beach was beautiful when they were small. But after the Shinra built that city above, the sun stopped shining here, and the water got polluted," Cloud looked at Priscilla, whose eyes were almost red now with rage, "I was raised on that story and hate Shinra so much, I could die!"

"You think Rufus is thinking about crossing the ocean from here?" Aeris asked, and Cloud felt a soft thumping in his head. Whatever it was last night, it was right. Aeris continued and stated the obvious, "Does that mean Sephiroth already crossed the ocean?"

Red XIII slowly moved into the center of the circle and looked right at Cloud. "Cloud," he wondered, "didn't you finish Rufus off?"

Cloud said nothing. In fact, Cloud did not finish him off. After he gave the order to be left alone with the new president, they did meet in battle. Cloud did kill Rufus' pet panther, Dark Nation, and delivered an almost fatal blow to Rufus' side. Unfortunately, Rufus had the advantage of a circling helicopter and escaped safely.

"We gotta get to that town up there," Barret said, changing the subject, "mebbe we can climb the tower?"

"No!" Priscilla shouted, "There's a high voltage current running underneath the tower. Don't wander near it, it's dangerous!"

"You mean the water is electrically charged?" Cloud asked.

"No," Priscilla said, "but one metre off the surface there is a generator that electrifies the tower pillars. It's to stop all the slumlings from climbing up."

Cloud hadn't heard the term slumlings since they had left Midgar. "Priscilla!" called Grampy Webb from inside, "Come back inside, you need rest!"

"Coming, Grampy!" Priscilla called and walked back up the stairs, "See you later, Cloud!"

"There's an elevator," Yuffie said, "It leads straight to the airport path. They're pretty lenient about letting people go down it, but I'm pretty sure that they're not gonna like slumlings trying to go up."

"Cloud can go," Tifa suggested, "He looks like a SOLDIER."

"But we can't have Barret with us," Cloud warned, "They've been ordered to kill him on sight, so taking him as a prisoner wouldn't work either."

Yuffie rolled her eyes, "Just follow my lead."

She began towards the side of the cliff – which acted as a back wall for the town. Bored into the rock wall was a large iron door – much like the gates that separated Shinra-only areas of Upper Midgar from civilian territory.

There was a single MP stationed at the bottom, staring at the ground lazily. He cradled a semi-automatic machine gun and looked at Yuffie as she approached him. In her hands she held out a transparent glass flask with a distinct red liquid inside.

"Where did she get that phoenix down?"

"Need you ask, Tifa?" Cloud smirked. He didn't need proof to know that they were missing one phoenix down from their pack.

Yuffie handed the phoenix down to the MP, who walked over to the lift controls and pushed a few buttons until the iron door began to open.

Yuffie turned back to them and waved her arms, motioning for them to follow. She walked into the lift and everyone else followed.

The MP was surprised to see Red XIII stride carelessly into the lift, but his jaw dropped as Barret shuffled his way on. Aghast, the MP didn't think to aim his gun, he was so bewildered at what he had just done he stood, dumbfounded as the iron door slid shut again.

The lift was in an open shaft – upon the wall there was a fluorescent sign that read: Caution.

The lift began to ascend, the walls slid down around them and then – unexpectedly, they jerked to a stop.

"What's happened?" Red XIII asked.

"Probably stopped the lift and alerted others of our presence," Cloud shook his head, "We should have killed that guy."

Without another word, Cloud grabbed onto a large pipe on the wall and began to climb it. His boots held surprisingly well to the wall and he began to shimmy up the pipe.

"Cloud!" Tifa whispered harshly, "Where are you going?"

"To the top," Cloud struggled to speak while climbing, "I'll activate the lift when I get there."

The climb was not easy – more than a few times Cloud felt himself slipping and almost lost his grip – but his gloves and boots held true and he reached the door – thankfully not made of iron but regular metals. Gripping tightly to the pole with one hand, he pulled out his sword and stabbed it between the doors and pried it open, coming face to face with two MPs who had their guns pointed at him.


	50. Book 2: Dearness, Bleer and Bath

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

**Dearness, Bleer and Bath**

It was the MPs who broke the silence. "Thank god! I was worried that terrorists had sabotaged the lift. Who stopped the elevator? And what are you doing dressed like that?"

Cloud was bewildered – they recognized him?

"Get back in uniform, man," the other MP said, "The march starts any minute." They began towards the door.

Having no time to think, Cloud shouted, "Wait!" The MPs stopped. "Some more guys are stuck in the lift, we need to get it moving again."

The MPs walked to the console on the wall and began pressing the code as Cloud lifted himself firmly out of the shaft.

"Why did it stop, anyway?" one of the MPs asked.

"Someone from downstairs called up, said there might be dangerous people and stopped it to protect us."

"Dangerous? Him?" they both laughed as they walked out of sight. Cloud heard the lift moving again, so he looked around for approaching security. There was none. He stepped out of building and onto the airport path.

What he saw was an airship.

Eventually. First, he saw speeding cargo transports going to and from the lift up to the launch pad. Several employees were standing guard at rope stations, listening to the blaring sound of a voice over their PHSs, but the only thing Cloud could make out of the noise was "Mission Control… officer Will Bleer."

From the rope stations, great ropes acted as anchors for the airship.

It looked nearly like a slingshot had been laid flat in the sky – two great engines were connected to the main part of the ship – a long, conical-ended shaft that stretched out towards the edge of the flight path – which simply dropped down into the ocean. Several spherical segments were placed accordingly along the cylindrical body for storage, passenger decks and more engines. Amidships, a separate deck hung down from the underbelly, and between the two sections was an open air observation platform where Cloud could see crew running about like ants.

It was a hovering town, with enough space to house fifty aristocrats easily.On the outside it was no less impressive. While it had a mako powered engine, it used fans and propellers to lift its massive body off the ground. It had no proper support for landing, so the propellers turned even while docked, and they used ropes to keep it from floating away. Right now the airship was docked, so the propellers turned in opposite directions, keeping it from moving too much.

In the distance, he could see more ships. Planes – also using propellers but not to the extent of the airship. Those were the planes of the Air Force, and most were fighters and bombers used for the war, and not suitable for transport.

'_Is Rufus going to use the airship to cross the ocean?_' Cloud thought, as a few officers in light blue looked at him with curiosity. Upon seeing his eyes, however, they turned back to their clipboards. He wasn't sure if they were the same MPs as before, they all looked the same underneath their masks.

Cloud walked back inside the building and walked right into a Shinra elite commander.

"You!" said the commander.

Cloud said nothing.

"Your uniform is still in your locker. Hurry up or we're going to be late!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your uniform, lieutenant Bath! Or have you forgotten about Rufus' Welcoming Parade. We are all to march in it, including your sorry ass!"

Commander Dearness mistook Cloud for a lieutenant – the MPs earlier must have done so as well. The real Lieutenant Bath was asleep at home. He was also a brunette with dark skin, but the commander always saw him behind a mask anyway, and easily mistook the yellow-haired pale man for his lieutenant. Cloud avoided looking at the commander, he did not want to give away his mako imbued eyes.

Now, he was Lieutenant Bath. It was not enough to infiltrate Shinra's higher ups, but it was a stroke up luck nonetheless. He walked into the locker room and the commander followed.

"This is the military, soldier!" commander Dearness yelled, "Your orders for today are to send off President Rufus at the dock! Now get changed!"

Cloud moved to the locker and held the combination lock in his hands for a moment. Letting it go, he turned to Dearness.

"I've forgotten my combination, sir," he said. If he only had his sword, he would have killed this man long ago and taken a commander's uniform. Where was Barret?

"Stand back," warned Dearness, and shot open the lock. The door swung open, "we're in a real hurry, the parade is about to begin!"

Inside the locker, in a heap on the bottom was a blue MPs uniform. On the hanger instead was the semi-automatic machine gun, which Cloud had never been very capable with. Cloud reached into the locker and grabbed the blue MP uniform. He stripped down and left his clothing, armour and sword by the door – hoping that the rest of the party would notice it.

'_The old uniform,'_ he thought, _'I remember when I first put it on. I was so damn proud.'_

It smelled awful, Lieutenant Bath apparently wasn't taking advantage of Shinra's hygiene packages. At this moment, he was slightly insulted at being confused with a soldier who smelled this horrid. He felt quickly that his recent shower was suddenly all for naught. He grabbed the gun as well and turned to the commander, who smiled, "Great! Now we have to go join the parade!"

Cloud could barely see through the mask, and he stumbled a bit as he followed the commander out of the locker room. Hurrying through the hallway, he didn't even notice Rude of the Turks before running straight into him. Rude stopped and looked at Cloud, who was now grateful for the mask.

"Sorry," said Cloud, and quickly ran off towards his commander.

"Stupid lieutenants," Rude mumbled. Dusting off his too-blue-to-be-black suit, he walked towards the launch pad where their helicopter had just landed.

Outside, Cloud was surprised to find three other MPs standing around, and no one else.

"Late?!" Dearness shouted, "Oh no oh no oh no! This can't be! Come on, men!"

They were on the Great Path, which was a very wide road that went straight across the front of New Junon. This was the providence of the Shinra army, and they performed marches, assaults and the like on it. The only way into the city from there was through back alleys.

Running down the Great Path, Cloud heard the whir of a helicopter overhead, and he knew that the Turks were here. From his mask, he could only hear the muffled sound of his breath hitting the cloth mask, and the clunking of his uniform as he clasped the gun firmly.

He looked to his left out at the ocean. The sky was full of vapour, and it shone purple in the red morning. It was all quite beautiful, but it was not what Cloud was looking at. His eyes through the mask were fixated on Junon's great mako cannon, which they were passing underneath. The cannon was big enough for Shinra's airship to fly inside with ease, and it was longer than the town itself, sticking twenty-four metres out of the town and its foundations were in the rocky cliffs behind the town. There it sat, unused for six years since the end of the war. Now it was simply a statue, a symbol of Shinra's power. Complete domination over the world, as Yuffie's Wutai had fallen to this cannon, no doubt. It had been designed for long range fire, and surely enough its mako blast flew halfway across the world to wreak havoc on the poor Wutaians. No one opposed the Shinra now.

Except of course, Lieutenant Bath.


	51. Book 2: Rufus's Welcoming March

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 19**

**Rufus's Welcoming March**

The snare drum rolled. The flutes trilled. There was long build-up and then, timed with the first clash of symbols, cannons filled with confetti fired from above. The confetti was made of shredded gold, and it dwindled slowly towards the Grand Path, falling past balconies where the aristocracy leaned over with their infants to watch the parade go by underneath.

The Grand Path was a highway of sorts, spanning the length of Junon, running straight, wedged between the bronze walls of Junon and the open air and ocean. In peacetime, it was a calm straight-and-narrow, a throughway for shoppers (for all stores opened onto the Grand Path). At wartime, however, there were shields hidden the path, and they would rise up and protect the city when the attacks came by sea. Beneath the concrete, hidden, were massive turrets aimed at the ocean – in case of attack, areas of the road itself would slide away and the turrets would rise up and commence firing at the ocean. After the modifications to the Grand Path, it was still possible to fit the entirety of Shinra's army on the Grand Path.

Today, however, the stores were open and bustling. The Grand Path was lined with families gathering and cheering for the oncoming parade. There was still heavy military -that was true. An MP was stationed every few feet to prevent protestors from causing trouble, but even they were in a merry mood. Shinra military jeeps and trucks, in their stern and mighty form, were part of the parade today and were lined with happy banners with the president's name writ in crimson. Instead of turrets, live telly cameras swerved around, capturing the celebration and broadcasting it to every known telly in the world. Fort Condor. Kalm. Midgar. Beyond, to the Western Continent.

Above, the Turks' helicopter patrolled the buildings that faced the Grand Path, and Aeris backed away from the window. She returned to the group.

They had infiltrated the house above a store, as the shop-keep had been too enraptured by the pomp and circumstance outside. There they huddled watching the parade on the telly, four of them, Cloud had made his own way up, and Yuffie had run off as soon as they reached the top of the elevator.

"Has Rufus passed yet?" Barret asked Aeris.

"No, not yet, and the Turks are on the lookout for snipers."

"Don't care about Turks. Jes tell me when he passes - so's I can shoot 'im. Red can take care of the helicopter."

"I doubt setting a fire large enough to destroy a helicopter would allow us anonymity," the beast posed, "Everyone in Junon would instantly feel it, and subsequently know our location. Perhaps you should try accepting the fact that you cannot assassinate Rufus today."

"He'll get his, one day," Tifa assured him, "When the empire crumbles. If he dies today, he'll be replaced, and we'll all be dead."

"Shucks," Barret stammered.

Red XIII jumped and placed his front paws on the windowsill, looking down at the parade. "It sure is lovely," he said.

"Man, I don't get you!" Barret spat, "one minute you a cold man, the next, you a blubberin' baby! Get it together! We gotta find Cloud, his sword is too damn heavy!"

"You get it together!" Yuffie said, entering the room with a pile of clothes, "wow, for a bunch of terrorists that are so well known, you guys really suck at sneakin' around."

She dropped the clothes in the middle of the pile, heaps of blue and black, "while you were up here being stupid-heads, I was gathering information and got us some bonified uniforms, and a way onto Rufus' ocean-bound boat."

"How did you do that?" Aeris asked.

"I used my wiles!" Yuffie lied; in truth she had used magic and thievery. "I found dumb ol' Cloud's regular clothes stashed in a locker with the rest of these, too."

There were several blue uniforms in the pile. They each found one that fit them and got dressed quickly. Barret looked out the window as Rufus's car passed out of sight. He sighed in disappointment. When he turned, everyone was dressed in blue, and the only uniform left on the ground was white. He picked it up to find a large sailor's suit.

"It's the only one I could find that fit you," Yuffie said.

"How the hell do you know my dimensions?" Barret shouted, "damn."

"Look!" Aeris said. She stood at the window and wildly pointed down. The rest moved to the window and looked down.

One of the soldiers was madly out of step. He had entered from the back, and pushed another soldier out of the way, trying to time his steps with the rest of his brigade.

The cameras swerved to fixate upon the out of step lieutenant, and they looked at the telly inside their room.

The face of the lieutenant was hidden behind the mask as expected, but they could see a few strands of golden yellow hair poking out from underneath the cap.

"Cloud!" Tifa cried.

* * *

Grammy Webb stood in the crowd in her raggy, slumling garb, her fists tightly clenching the eggs she had omitted from last night's mandragora salad. Rufus's car was passing by, the MP in front of her was slacking off. Arrogance: that was Shinra's weakness. She seized her chance. 

Ducking underneath the MP's arm, she was free to run on the Grand Path. She was behind Rufus's white convertible, where he stood on the backseat and waved at the crowds. He wasn't expecting this at all! She wound up her right arm and threw as hard as she could.

* * *

The cameras swerved and zoomed in on Rufus, and the group watched as egg yolk drooled down his double breasted overcoat. He slowly turned to the slumling as she reared back to fire another egg. 

"Holy shit is that--?"

Rufus acted quicker and drew the shotgun from underneath his coat, raising it up through the confetti and swiftly aiming at Grammy Webb. He smiled. Fear was a weapon, a weapon of his.

* * *

Cloud was getting into step slowly, this next one he took would be perfectly on time, and everything would be all right from then on. He looked down at his foot falling towards the ground, in time with the squadlings around him. They all stepped, the simultaneous whumping of their feet sounded almost like a gunshot. The next step was much quieter.

* * *

On live global television, the woman flew back. Blood splattered over the Grand Path and her neck snapped as she hit the concrete. Her face had been completely blown off, the cameraman, in a The egg in her hand smashed on the road. The music never stopped. Rufus turned back around and the parade continued as if nothing had happened. 

"Holy shit he's armed?!" Barret exclaimed, "I thought this was a goddamn parade!"

* * *

The parade continued without further interruption. Cloud passed a bloodstain on the path, and a – was that a cracked egg? Cleanup crews were quickly making it disappear, high pressure hoses washed the blood and egg past Cloud's feet as he marched in step. The observers, still somwhat in shock, had their hands together, frozen where they had once been clapping. Cloud gathered that a protester had been killed, most likely. After a minute, they had left the area of influence, where, aside from a few fearful people chattering, people were happy in their ignorance, waving at the marching armies. They were nearing the end of the parade line, Rufus's car was already parked beyond the sight of the public (but not of Cloud) and he was being helped out onto the ground.

* * *

Rufus Shinra stepped out of the white convertible and looked Heidegger firmly in the face. 

"Where the hell was security?!" he barked, "that woman should have been dead before she even got to the parade!"

"I'm not head of the parade, Gyaaa haa!" Heidegger laughed, "I'm just the head of peace preservation."

"Well why didn't you 'preserve-the-peace' by shooting her as soon as you saw her?!"

"I don't have a gun, President."

"I'm not happy, Heidegger. I came to this port to use an airship," he snarled, "now explain to me why we are taking a cargo vessel across the entire ocean? Do you know how many days that is? I'm the president of the world, Heidegger. I know slumlings that get better service than this!"

"The long distance airship Highwind will not be completed for a few weeks," Heidegger replied.

"Well what about the Air Force's Gelnika? That should get us to Costa Del Sol within a few hours."

"Gya ha ha ha!"

"Stop that stupid horse laugh!" Rufus shouted, "is there anything funny about this, or do you enjoy watching me suffer?"

Heidegger's laugh slowed and he let out a final "Gya..." before wiping the tears from his eyes. "Gelnika has had a slight... problem."

"What, what problem?"

"Before Hojo resigned," Heidegger explained coarsely, with a subtle gaiety, "we were transporting a few creatures from Headquarters to Nibelheim for experimentation in the mako reactor there. The creatures broke loose and attacked the crew. It hit the water outside of Costa Del Sol and sunk to the bottom of the ocean."

Rufus was quiet for a long time. "What in the fuck do you find funny about that?"

In saying that, Rufus triggered a sudden blast of laughter from Heidegger, who coughed with "Gyaaa haa!"

"As soon as this Sephiroth thing is over, I want the Turks investigating that ship, I want them to find all survivors, all creatures, and I want them brought back to Headquarters right away."

With a nod, "It will be done, sir!"

Heidegger saluted Rufus as the President moved back into the car, "I'm not happy, Heidegger," he repeated, "I hate this parade, I hate these people, this stupid town and everything about it, except of course for that cannon. Things are different than when my father was in charge. I want you to remember that. Driver, take me to the boat."

Heidegger felt horrible, so he found a nearby lieutenant and gave him a horrid punch in the face. He watched the car drive off without him and sighed. This would be another long, long walk.

* * *

There was a small collection of men waiting for the President at the boat. Among them was Lieutenant Bath - Cloud Strife in disguise. 

"All right, soldiers!" Commander Dearness ordered, "this is it, no screw ups! Just like we practiced!"

Cloud felt a perturbed turn in his stomach. He had never practiced. Looks like Lieutenant Bath was in line for a demotion. 'What's below lieutenant?' Cloud thought, and a small band played Rufus' Welcoming Song once more as the team began their send off routine.

Cloud knew that he would never be able to keep up with trained lieutenants. What would an elite member of SOLDIER know about sendoff routines? They placed their guns towards the skies first, the barrel leaning on their right shoulders. Cloud found that easy enough. After that, they brought down the guns and pushed it ahead of them. Cloud found that he kept up with that too.

They straightened the gun perpendicularly, moving their feet in to click against each other. Cloud had not missed a beat. At this point, he was getting slightly suspicious of his natural talents with campy routines. Rufus watched, seemingly uninterested.

The routine was not long, perhaps thirty seconds. For long after, however, Cloud would wonder why he had been so terribly good at that. He shrugged it off later to instincts and SOLDIER reflexes, but something itched at the back of his mind, like the silent voice that haunted his sleep.

There was a clapping behind them and Heidegger walked up to the group, panting. "Well done," he said, "Gyaa ga ha! Keep up the good work for Shinra Inc! You can all go home now."

The lieutenants stood still, waiting for orders from their commander.

Rufus and Heidegger turned to the ship, Rufus said to his right-hand-man, "When word gets out that Sephiroth is here, Cloud and his friends will show up soon."

"We will crush them as soon as we find them," Heidegger said, "if it takes every man we have here."

"We can't have them get in our way," Rufus said.

"Leave it up to me, sir!" Heidegger laughed then, hoarsely and bold.

"I thought I told you to stop that stupid laugh!" Rufus said, and walked onto the ship, not noticing the head of Red XIII poking out from behind a barrel. Cloud noticed, however, and gave a nod of acknowledgment to the beast.

Rufus disappeared inside the cargo hold, leaving Heidegger to stew with his rage. He took it out on Cloud's crew, running towards them with fists bared. The Commander and his team fled from Heidegger, who screamed after them. Cloud took the moment to sneak onto the ship behind him.

Hiding behind the barrel, he looked at Red XIII. "How did you get up here?" he asked, "you can't climb ladders!"

"An elevator gave us a ride," Red XIII said, "that Yuffie is actually pretty useful, for now."

"Elevator?" Cloud asked.

"Yes, oh and by the way, we have your equipment on board as well."

The door to the boat was closing, and the light from the day grew into a thin line. The door made a monstrous clunk as it closed, and the lights went out in the cargo bay. They were enveloped in blackness.

"Very well," came the voice of Cloud, too quiet to cause an echo in the dark cargo bay. "We'll cross the ocean to the east continent. Even if we are in Shinra uniform."


	52. Book 2: The Sendoff

**Author's Note:**

This was previously a Turk-central chapter that I removed because of its pointlessness. In a little while, this note will be removed but the chapter reinforced some of the things that are implied in _Chapter 47: Jenova's Arm_. Before I go back and edit that chapter with this new info, you should now know the following things about some of the characters.

1. Both Reeve and Tseng are Orunai, meaning that they have been stuck at a certain age for a while. Tseng has been twenty-nine for almost twenty years, and Reeve has been thirty-six for forty-two years.

2. Rude can use magic, which Elena finds unnerving.

Sorry for the inconvenience, please proceed.


	53. Book 2: It's Difficult to Stand

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot

* * *

**

**Chapter 21**

**It's Difficult to Stand on Both Feet**

Yuffie leaned against a large wooden crate, and her hands clenched her knees as she hunched towards the ground, her head bobbing loosely. She groaned sickly and said, "This is why I hate ships."

Cloud stood a few feet away, leaning against an opposing crate. His arms were crossed and he looked at her. Cloud had never gotten motion sickness, although he had a lot of experience dealing with people who had. He thought back to his ride with Sephiroth to Nibelheim. The guard with them, he had motion sickness. He wracked his brain to remember what he and Sephiroth had done to calm him. They would give him a tranquility elixir, that seemed to dope him up.

"Did you want a tranquilizer?" Cloud asked.

Yuffie looked up at him. Her black hair, which had been hanging straight towards the floor, now hung in front of her eyes. "Uh-huh," she moaned and reached out a hand.

Cloud reached for his belt, but soon realized that all of their clothing had been put inside Red XIII's pack. He stood in blue Shinra uniform, and so did Yuffie. Her helmet, however, lay on the ground a few feet away from her, as she had thrown it off a few moments ago.

"Where is our pack?" he asked.

Yuffie lifted a hand and pointed in a vague direction. Cloud looked and saw the pile of equipment across the way. He made a vector path to it and opened the pack to find his clothes inside. He contemplated for a moment about where his clothes had been. _'How did they find them?'_ He asked himself.

No matter. Out of Cloud's belt he grabbed the elixir they had received from Fort Condor, and handed it to her. She grabbed it and opened the cork, which made a satisfying popping noise. She was about to drink but she stopped herself. Pushing the hair away from her thin eyes, she looked at Cloud and said, "Thanks."

She took a sip and swallowed, "Gross!" she shouted, gagging, "This is bitter!"

Cloud stood up and was about to leave when Yuffie asked, "where are the others?"

"I don't know," Cloud replied, "aren't they hiding somewhere around here?"

"How should I know?" Yuffie asked, but then she clutched her stomach and fell to her knees. She threw up on the ground and threw her arm at Cloud, motioning for him to leave.

Cloud came out of the small corridor when a crew person in blue ran into him. The hit startled them so much that they stumbled backwards until they found their footing. Cloud didn't need her to tell him who she really was, he recognized her scent.

"Cloud!" she whispered, "it's me! Aeris!"

"Hey," said Cloud, "how are you doing?"

"I'm fine," she giggled, "did you see that airship in Junon?"

"I had heard it was big," Cloud said, "but I didn't expect it to be that big."

"It was really something," Aeris said, "do you think I could ever get on?"

_'The airship is a Shinra weapon,'_ Cloud thought, _'We probably should have destroyed it.'_

He couldn't bring himself to say that, however, looking at the mask that shielded Aeris' face from his view. Looking at her through his own mask, he nodded and said "I'll take you on it."

Her shoulders rose and he could tell her face was lighting up. "Really?!" she said, and threw her arms around him.

Another crewman walked past at that exact moment and saw the two hugging. He stopped and looked at them, shook his head and continued without further delay.

Aeris stopped hugging him and watched the puzzled crewman walk off into the cargo bay.

"Well," she said, "since I am supposed to be a man right now, I think we should keep things like this to a minimum."

Cloud nodded.

Aeris added, "for now." She giggled and ran off among the crates.

Turning and heading up the stairs, Cloud found himself looking at the midday. The salt of the sea wafted through his mask and he felt a little tingling in his belly.

He wondered briefly if that was what people with motion sickness felt, only ten fold.

The sun poured down onto him as he walked through the deck, uninhibited by pollution, storm or city above. The deck was hard metal, typical of Shinra. Several crewmen muddled about, idly performing their small errands on their way to the new continent. One in particular was walking oddly. Staggering, the bizarre crewman walked towards Cloud and stood in front of him.

"It's me," the odd crewman said, "Red XIII."

"Hello!" Cloud greeted.

"I'm a little woozy, but I shouldn't get caught. Humans look only at appearances anyway. And besides, I think I make a fine human being."

Cloud nodded in agreement. The beast was right.

Red XIII turned to walk away, and that's when Cloud noticed a long tail flailing behind the irregular crewman. It wagged along as he walked, and before he got too far, Red XIII turned around and added, "It's pretty hard standing on two feet!"

Tifa Lockheart was in the crows nest. She leaned over the metal rail of her loft and waved down at Cloud. The swell of her chest bulged out from her blue uniform, and her long black hair refused to be restrained by the full-headed helmet she wore.

She was enjoying the breeze as it seeped through the underside of her mask and tickled her neck, and long black strands of hair waved like flages behind her. She inhaled the ocean air, looking out at the flat horizon, where blue met blue. The midday wisps of cloud caressed the surface of the sea, it was serene.

He climbed up the metal rungs and arrived in the crows nest with her. They stood in silence for a few moments, watching the waves curl up and get cut from the bow of the cargo boat.

Tifa turned to him and saluted, "Yes, sir!" she said gruffly, "everything quiet sir!"

Cloud laughed and returned the salute.

"But you know," Tifa continued, "I really hate this uniform. Uniforms, soldiers, war, I hate 'em all. They take away all the things and people you love... I wish they'd all disappear. Right, Cloud?"

Cloud nodded and returned his gaze towards the ocean.

"...Cloud. Does it remind you of being in SOLDIER?"

"No. In SOLDIER, we didn't wear uniforms," Cloud said.

Tifa was quiet and Cloud got a strange feeling. As if she was hiding something from him. She knew that SOLDIERs did not wear uniforms. She had been there five years ago.

He let his thoughts pass. There was nothing they could do now. They could only wait until they docked.

"Cloud," Tifa said, "why do you think Rufus is crossing the ocean?"

Cloud shrugged, "I assume he's chasing Sephiroth."

"Doesn't he have a world to attend to?"

"Maybe. Maybe he's doing just that. We can't know everything about Shinra's affairs, only the ones that concern us."

"Barret doesn't seem to think so," she said.

"Well, Barret has his world to attend to as well."

"Marlene," Tifa said, a hint of concern rising in her voice.

"She's in Midgar. Aeris' mother is taking care of her. I'm sure Barret thinks about that every day."

"I feel like..." Tifa started, but was hesitant about continuing. She hid from Cloud the words she had been about to use. She had been about to say 'I feel like her mother.'

Instead, she continued with, "I feel like, I don't know, an older sister. Someone who is also responsible for her."

Cloud looked out onto the deck below them. Red XIII hobbled about, and he recognized Aeris's cheery gait, even through her blue uniform. Yuffie, he assumed was down below. Barret wasn't on the deck.

"Where is Barret anyway?"

"I hope he isn't doing something stupid," Tifa said.

When Tifa said that, Cloud got the uneasy feeling that he was, and climbed down to find him.


	54. Book 2: The Face of the Enemy

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book II**

**The World on Foot**

* * *

**Chapter 22**

**The Face of the Enemy**

The bridge to the cargo ship overlooked the the ocean from the bow of the vessel, however, right underneath the window was a small area of deck, where Barret Wallace crouched. Cloud found him after minutes of wandering about the deck. And when Barret noticed him, he waved his arm up and down, rapidly to signify a crouching command.

Cloud crouched and approached Barret.

The rest of the party had been donning a blue crewman's uniform, but Barret was weaing a great white sailor's suit. The suit was hemmed with baby blue on the collar and waist.

"What are you wearing?" Cloud whispered.

"Shu'up!" Barret whispered back, "you should be worrying 'bout whos inside this room!"

Cloud poked his head up to look inside the bridge. The captain, who at this moment clutched the helm, was arguing with Rufus. Heidegger stood behind Rufus. None of them were looking at the window at this particular moment. Rufus' shouting could not be heard outside.

"You don't think this sound-proof window works both ways?" Cloud mocked, ducking behind the window again.

"They're this close," Barret said, "so close, but we can't do a thing to em!"

Cloud looked back inside, the captain was gone, and Rufus and Heidegger were laughing at the helm. They seemed to be enjoying themselves quite nicely.

Barret squirmed with hatred, "How can he go off laughin' like that? Because of him, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie..."

Barret started to growl and began to crawl towards the door.

"Barret, where are you going?!" Cloud shouted.

"I can't take it anymore, Cloud! I'm gonna settle things here and now!" he shouted back, but just then a great siren went off.

Out of great speakers all around them, the alarm blared and then the voice of the captain, who had run back inside the bridge.

"Emergency alert! Reports of a stowaway found! Those not on detail, search the ship. Report when found! I repeat... Stowaway sighted on board! Those not on detail, search the ship. Report when found!"

Rufus and Heidegger looked more than concerned, and quickly left the bridge.

"Damn!" Barret shouted, "did they find us?"

"I don't think it's us," Cloud said.

"What about Tifa and the others?" Barret said, jumping to his feet, he began to run towards the crows nest, but turned and shouted, "Get off your spikey butt and let's go, Cloud!"

The first one they saw when they returned to the main deck was Red XIII, who's walk was easily recognizable. He tottered up to them and returned to all fours when he was sure no one was watching. His tail whipped around behind him.

"Red XIII," Cloud said, "did they find you?"

"I haven't been found, no," the beast replied.

"Tifa's up in that lookout station!" Barret shouted, pointing to the crows nest, where Tifa shrugged her shoulders.

Two crewmen came from behind Red XIII and took off their helmets. It was Yuffie and Aeris.

"Everyone's all right?" Tifa called as she climbed down.

"Wait, hold on, everyone is here," Aeris said.

"You don't think that suspicious stowaway is Sephiroth, do ya?" Barret asked.

"Really?" Tifa asked.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?! It was just a guess." Barret shouted in nervous aggravation.

"It was a good guess," Red XIII said, "I can't see how it could be anyone else."

"...let's find out," Cloud said after much thought.

"It's the most logical thing to do. Then who's going to go."

"Damnit all!" Barret said, "We're all going! I don't wanna get caught by Sephiroth with only three of us – that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Not me!" Yuffie said, "I'm not going! I don't like Sephiroth! And besides, I feel sick!"

"Fine," Cloud said, "everyone except for Yuffie is going to go."

"Holy cow!" Yuffie shouted, "That's even worse!"

Cloud began to walk towards the staircase that led to the cargo bay. Suddenly, there rose a great stench from the cargo bay. It smelled like death.

Walking down into the cargo bay, the crates had blood splotches all over them, as if the crewmen down here had been torn right apart. The floor had pools of blood and limbs were strewn across the metal floor.

The pack was hidden inside a crate beside an enormous stuffed animal of some kind, which Cloud paid no attention to. His sword, Aeris' staff, Yuffie's shuriken, they were removed from the crate but there was no time to dress in their civilian clothing. The guards to the door on the far side of the room were dead, headless. They moved past them and through the open door.

The catwalk above them dripped with blood, as the bodies of crewmen were scattered upon it.

At the far end of the room, a commander stood with his back towards them. As they approached him, the group stopped, but Cloud walked right up to the man in crimson.

"Are you the stowaway?" he asked.

The commander turned to them, and it was only then that Cloud noticed. His entire belly had been cut open, and there was nothing left inside but a gaping hole and the exposed vertebrae at the far end.

Crumpling, the commander fell to the floor. Cloud backed up to stay with the others. Yuffie stayed far behind the others.

Suddenly, a roaring voice was heard from all around them.

"After a long sleep..." boomed the voice. Cloud and Tifa recognized it right away. They looked around to see where the voice was coming from. Nowhere.

"The Time..." it continued, "the time has come!"

"Cloud, look!" Tifa shouted, and Cloud looked at where the commander's body lay. In front of the corpse, something began to come through the floor.

He rose like a ghost, his silver hair flowing out behind him as he passed right through the steel. When his eyes came through the floor, he looked at each of them piercingly. He continued to rise, the black collar of his trenchcoat floating effortlessly through the floor. When his feet finally came through, he did not stop rising. Instead, he continued to float upwards, foot after foot, until he was high above them in the room.

Cloud looked at Sephiroth. The man he had believed to be dead for the last five years was alive. Looking up at him, he shouted, "Sephiroth! You're alive!"

The figure looked down at Cloud, who had removed his helmet, "Who are you?" Sephiroth asked.

"You don't remember me?! I'm Cloud!"

"Cloud..."

"Sephiroth! What are you thinking!? What are you doing!?"

"The time is NOW!" Sephiroth bellowed. Spinning around in the air, he suddenly charged them.

* * *

It was a searing pain that struck Cloud, both outside and in. The profound headache, and the horrible blinding whiteness in front of his eyes. The flashing of the old camera, the cold of steel on his skin, the fear of confronting Sephiroth flooded back to him in a simple colour. The colour of nothing.

He struggled against it, and his eyes faded back into realty. But what he saw standing before him was not Sephiroth.

It was if a Marlboro had attempted to transform into a humanoid female, suspended between tentacles for a base and large, fleshy bumps on its back that resembled wings, the creature towered over them, surrounded by the fearsome nothingness of Cloud's memories.

His headache began to fade, the reality of a monster inside the cargo bay settled on him, and the sound of Barret's gunfire slowly rose up and echoed throughout the metallic walls.

The bullets pierced the thick skin of the monster, and Cloud stood up and drew his sword. The creature seemed yet unaffected, and with a tentacle so swift, it lashed out at Barret, and the giant was propelled across the room, leaving a trail of blood suspended in the air behind him. He landed at Aeris' feet, and she tended to his wounds immediately.

Red XIII was immediately leaping out at the monster, gnashing away like the Kalm Fangs had done to their weary party. Tifa was behind a box, casting fire on the beast. Yuffie tossed her shuriken, leaping from the tentacles deftly. She made battle with an enormous monster seem easy.

'_Is this Sephiroth?'_ wondered Cloud as he charged towards the fleshy creature, _'was it all smoke and mirrors, were we being played the fool by this… animal? Has he the power to transform into a monster of this size? Is this… is this his mother?'_

His sword easily removed a full tentacle from the base, and he was shocked to find that when it was sliced off, the broken pieces faded right out of existence, as if they had never been there at all.

'_What is this thing?'_ Cloud asked, _'Is it even real?'_

A great tentacle destroyed the box that Tifa hid behind, and its contents scattered about the floor. Several papers, and what looked like an enormous white stuffed animal, slid behind more crates and out of sight. Tifa was exposed, and she raced toward the creature baring her fists. As a tentacle swung at her, she sensed it and grabbed it at the tip. Before it had a chance to react, her spiked gloves hit the mark, and she ripped them free, the tentacle ripping in half and disappearing.

Barret had healed now, and was firing again at the humanoid upper body suspended in a wall of flesh. She was devoid of features, two lumps where breasts should go, a rounded area for a head and neck. Barret wondered where she was able to see from, but he fired anyway. _'What a creature,'_ he thought, _'undoubtedly a monster. This ain't no animal, no wolf who's jes hungry. This is a cold blooded motherfuckin monster, who wants to kill an kill no matter what. Jes like ol' man Shinra, and his dopey son.'_

"What the hell are you waiting for, Cloud?!" Yuffie yelled as she barely avoided a swing from a tentacle, "Use the summon already, sheesh!"

Cloud looked at the materia hunter, who caught her shuriken mid-air and landed on a tentacle, delicately jumping off to the safety of the ground. The boat rocked then, and she clutched her stomach in queasiness. She was struck by a tentacle and hurtled across the bay.

Aeris ran to Yuffie's side, using the materia in her staff to heal the wounds.

The materia.

Cloud grabbed the amulet that hung at his belt, his monocrys tasset. Priscilla had given it to him, but Yuffie had insisted that it was a materia.

Never before had he attempted to use a materia stone that was not the colour green. He wasn't sure if members of SOLDIER could accomplish this, or if magic that powerful was left only to Wutaians.

Aeris tended to Yuffie, but there wouldn't be enough time. Tifa was suffering major wounds, and Red XIII, hindered by a lack of depth perception was being tossed to and fro.

Cloud put the sword away on his back. He closed his eyes, and concentrated.

Having no idea what spell was hidden in the material was a dangerous thing to do, but as he felt the magical connection between himself and the stone, he made his intentions clear.

_'Destroy the creature with wings of flesh and tentacles. And only that creature.'_

And, for the first time in his recollection, Cloud Strife was denied by the materia.

It wasn't that he wasn't powerful enough to use it. Far from it, Cloud sensed that the magic inside this stone was just at his level.

But the spell simply refused to be cast. As if it were in a bad mood.

Cloud opened his eyes, defeated, and the side of his head was struck with a tentacle. He felt himself falling over, but then he felt the presence of another spell in the room.

Every molecule in the universe was sucked into the monster, and then released back like stretched elastic, and the monster cast her spell. It was unusual for animals to cast spells. Dragons, Cetra, Wutaians and a few rare cases of monster species were known to be able to use magic. But not as powerful as the spell this monster cast.

Cloud could feel himself falling slower, and at first his mind raced. He hadn't hit the floor yet, so it must be a levitation spell.

But the sound of Barret's' gunfire slowed to a dangerous pace. Less than one bullet per second was fired from the rotating cannon on his arm. Cloud tried to turn his head midair to look at Barret, but found that his body wasn't listening to him. He continued to fall, as if time itself had slowed down, his brain doomed to work at a normal rate, his body too slow on the uptake.

The monster, however, moved at normal rate, as the spell affected only its enemies. A tentacle swerved around to hit Cloud as he fell, and the reflexes in his brain told him to draw his sword and cut through it, but his hands moved only a few inches before the tentacle struck him in the torso and sent him flying through the air.

And how he was suspended in the air, the laws of gravity did not apply anymore, for everything about Cloud had been slowed, including his rate of falling, of being tossed. And so it was for Barret, as his blood-made bullets traveled through the air, and had the creature been small enough, she would have been able to dodge them. Instead, she only lessened the frequency of the attacks.

It was torture, stuck in midair, not even being able to move his eyes to see his companions getting tortured by great fleshy octopus arms. The only thing he knew for sure that was happening was that Tifa had begun to cast a fairly powerful fire spell.

He felt his soul open itself and enter the swirling vortex of Tifa's spell, but before it was complete, a tentacle struck Tifa and she too was sent soaring gently through the air, her concentration broken and the spell a failure.

The slow spell was wearing off, as Cloud could feel himself falling at a quicker rate, but he could not straighten himself out to land on his feet. His muscles and bones acted as they should if he was to land at normal rate, and it was a slow pain as he rolled against a crate.

By the time he managed to stand up, away from the reach of the monster, his body was moving at a more desirable speed. Barret's metronome of bullets upped its tempo, and Cloud felt comfortable enough to unsheathe his sword.

"Slow!" Yuffie cried from somewhere to his left, the fragmented word seemed incoherent and he paid it no heed. However, the creature's tentacles were moving at an incredibly slow rate. It was as if the spell that had just altered the party's physical movement had been reversed, and the monster before them was now afflicted with their earlier bane.

Cloud turned to look at Yuffie, who held her shuriken out in front of her. The yellow stone in her weapon glowed faintly. The mysterious yellow materia - did it absorb spells cast on its owner? Yuffie's knowledge of materia far exceeded his; perhaps she knew the secrets of the red materia that had refused him. Since the monster's reaction time was slow, Cloud managed to dodge a tentacle. He tried the spell again.

He felt the world enter himself, and he entered the stone.

* * *

He was swimming in an ethereal pool, the mystic mana. He acknowledged the presence of a soul within the stone, of a personality, a picky one at that.

"You are troubled, Cloud Strife." Came a gentle, female voice, inaudible but felt, tasted - an interweaving of the senses. "An unsteady mind is not helpful in a summoner."

Cloud accepted these words, but his request was uninterrupted. He did not try to respond to this force. _'Destroy the creature before me, and only that creature.'_

"It is quite possible," the being exuded the smell of her words, "That I am not real. I am the gathered memories of Shiva, goddess of the ice and winter. Whether or not I exist outside of this stone is unknown to me. But I exist here, and to use my power is to attempt to control me. Do you believe you are worthy?"

_'Destroy the creature before me, and only the creature before me.'_

"You have keen magic sense, but it is unnatural. It is alien to me. You can harness the power of ice and lightning easily enough, but my incarnation will prove your skills as a summoner. I grant you my powers when you wish to use them."

* * *

The world was the size of a single atom for a fraction of a millisecond that seemed to last an eternity. When it sprang back into normalcy, Cloud found himself separated from reality, as if he was staring at it through a smoke screen.

Looking around, he couldn't see his companions anywhere. In fact, he couldn't even see his own hands in front of him. He had been moved to a different plane of existence, a safe plane of existence. He was able – forced to watch the events of this summon unfold.

No continued concentration was needed on his part; the spell had a mind of its own and was acting according to its own laws of what was needed.

Shiva descended through the metal of the roof, just as Sephiroth had ascended from the floor. When she entered, frost began to form on the bodies of the dead; the dirty air crystallized and became floating diamond dust. Shiva, a floating ice-coloured woman of unspeakable beauty, raised her wand and the diamond dust collected onto it, as metal to a magnet. As souls to a spell-caster, the air emptied out and swirled around the tip of the wand.

Shiva pointed the wand at the creature and opened her mouth to speak. Synonymous with her words, everything in the room was covered in four feet of solid, clear ice. Cloud felt quite warm in his extra-planar theatre, he could see the creature, alone in the room, immobile and buried within the frozen water.

Satisfied with floating, Shiva swung the wand like a sword and the ice shattered into large shards, breaking themselves free and swirling around the room. Shiva controlled them all with her wand, and she sent them in waves, piercing the fleshy monster, freezing it to death.

When there was no more ice left in the room, and when the bodies had all melted and resumed their idle dripping of blood, Shiva left, not concerned whether or not the creature lived or died. She had protected who Cloud had wanted to protect, and hadn't harmed property in any way. Those were the wishes of the summoner. She had done her best to defeat the creature, and left their existence, returning to the stone.

Cloud felt himself fade into reality, relieved to know that Shiva's powers had worked and the creature was twitching in its final moments in life.

It began to shrink.

Barret, confused for a moment as to what had just happened, why everyone had disappeared and, above all, why the ancient goddess of ice had killed their foe, suddenly became more interested in discovering just who or what the foe was, after the smoke and mirrors of its great fleshy transformation.

It continued to shrink, but despite Cloud's inner nightmares it didn't grow long white hair, or a black coat. It was a grotesque, zombie-coloured carcass, all greens and blues. It shrunk below Barret, then Cloud, smaller than Tifa, Aeris, and Yuffie. And finally the thing became smaller than Red XIII and the shape of it, which was hard to figure out when it was so big, became surprisingly familiar.

"It looks like an arm," Yuffie commented.

"You're right," Cloud agreed, "I've seen this before. Jenova's arm."

They stood. All was quiet, save for the dripping of blood left from the corpses in Sephiroth's wake.

Cloud walked to where Sephiroth had moved through metal. He stood fine. In his mind, a million questions rushed through him. Now that Sephiroth was alive, did the Promised Land really exist? Why did not Sephiroth remember him? How did he survive? Where had he been? Was there any hope of turning him away from his dark path?

"It's gross," Yuffie said, kicking the arm, "How can an arm transform into a monster?"

"Jenova is an Ancient," Cloud said.

"You mean Aeris can do that too?!" Yuffie asked, surprised.

"Are you sure Jenova is a Cetra?" Aeris asked.

"She's powerful, and skilled with magic, that's for sure."

"Sephiroth's been carrying her around this whole time?" Tifa asked.

"Most of her, I think Shinra had the arm on this boat, that's the only reason I can see for him to be on it. I don't think he needs a boat to cross the ocean."

"Yeah, that mothafucka can fly! Why didn't you tell us that earlier?!"

Cloud shook his head. Hadn't he? Even his recent memories were beginning to become blurs. Sector 7 was a fading page in a wet book, even the faces of Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were hard to recall.

"What the hell did I get myself into?" Yuffie whined, "Just what in the hell is going on here?"

"Sephiroth burned down my hometown five years ago," Cloud began, "he was assumed dead on my credit. Recently, he killed President Shinra and stole Jenova, his artificial mother who is really an ancient. He plans to take himself and Jenova to someplace called 'The Promised Land.'"

"What does this have to do with us?" Yuffie asked.

"I don't know what he wants to do there, but it'll be no good for us. Besides, if Shinra follows him there, they're going to suck up all the mako."

"An' the planets gonna die!" Barret interjected.

"Right," Cloud continued, "so we have one goal, prevent anyone from getting to the Promised Land, if it even exists. Me, on the other hand... I have to face Sephiroth again. I won't be satisfied until he's good and dead."

**End of Book II**


	55. Foreward to Book 3: The Homecoming

**Foreward**

Well, here we are at the edge of the precipice of "Book III: The Homecoming". The action goes along a little quicker, as I'm sure we're all tired by now by the wild goose chase that happened all the way through Book II. Well I've got bad news for you - the chase continues all the way through Book III and might end sometime in Book IV.

The thing that I like about this part of the story is how I can liken it to a frame story. The main story arc is the chase after Sephiroth, and throughout we get all this little vignettes that teach us so much about each of the characters. That's what this book is about, the characters, their pasts, not the hopeless search for the black-cloaked man. While Book II's purpose was mostly to shed some light on the world outside of Midgar, Book III explores that world a little more but focuses mostly on what makes AVALANCHE tick as it does - we also explore some NPCs with some more depth, as we've seen with Wedge in Book II.

By the end of this book, we will have met and become familiar with all of the major players in this story, with only a few characters to flesh out in later books. This is the last one where you have to learn about _who_ we're dealing with. When Book IV rolls around, you won't have to think about why, you'll know. That's probably why Book IV was my favorite to write and is still my favorite part of the game to replay. Not to say you'll know everything about the story, if you don't know the story already, you'll keep guessing right up until Book V, the last act in this play. But we're not talking about those books, we're talking about Book III! Here it is!

And remember, while this has already been written, I am still open to criticisms. If something here doesn't work, ask me to change it. If I accidentally write Cloud down as Xander (my name for him) let me know. What's the harm in a review, eh? If you're liking where it's going, please review! I would love to hear more from you guys, it keeps me inspired to continue other fics or work on my original fiction over at fiction press (I have the same alias there as well). Enough pre-ramble. Enjoy!

-Mr. Ite


	56. Book 3: Costa del Sol

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Costa Del Sol**

They would blow through the West Continent like a feather in the maelstrom, coughing up sand and salt water, flying in and out of prison, nearly killing, nearly dying, and Cloud had a suspicion even before they docked that they would not defeat Sephiroth before blowing right off the godforsaken landmass.

They hid beneath the floorboards of the cargo vessel, where they might have reasoned Sephiroth had been hiding had he not passed through the metal itself, slipping between the atoms until arriving above it, flying. He was proving a worthy foe for both the party and Shinra Inc., whose reigns on the world were beginning to shred.

It smelled of sweat. Cloud was sandwiched between Tifa and Yuffie, and hoped that the stink was coming from Barret, who was wiping perspiration off his giant brow. Thin strings of artificial light poured through from the cargo bay above them, illuminating Yuffie, who despite having Barret covering her mouth and nose with his hand never made a sound of protest (which she would have done under any circumstances except this one). Nobody conversed or breathed louder than necessary, because Rufus was standing right above them.

"I heard Sephiroth was on board," Rufus asked. Through the floorboards, his voice sounded tinny and odd.

Heidegger shifted above Barret. "What a long boat ride that was!"

"Did you hear me, Heidegger? I said Sephiroth was here, wasn't he?"

"...Yes."

"And it seems that Cloud and the others were on board too."

They held their breath. Heidegger stammered. "Yes."

"We've docked, haven't we? They've had the chance to escape - they all slipped through. You messed up big this time, Heidegger."

"I'm ashamed of myself."

"Is that all you can do? Give one word answers and apologize for everything?"

"Sorry."

"Sir!" a crewman called. "We've readied the trucks for transport."

"No helicopter?"

"No, sir, the helicopters don't have enough range to get to the Gold Saucer."

"Sometimes..." Rufus trailed off, and he walked away, his boots clanging on the metal. "Do something," he called back. "I'll be expecting results."

Heidegger, in his mordancy, struck a crewman so hard that the poor boy collapsed on top of the grate, blocking the light. Heidegger trundled out of the cargo bay.

Once the boy-crewman had picked himself up and left, then the time was right to escape.

The cargo bay yawned open onto a creaking wooden dock, and hot, dry bubble of air wafted past their faces. Cloud could feel his pores twitching in agony, and then cry like onion-chopping eyes. His sweat stung.

"Damn," Barret exhaled exhaustedly, "it sure is hot here. But I feel better now that I can say goodbye to that sailor suit."

They left the boat and stood on the dock, the sky was blue and clear.

"Oh," Aeris smiled. The heat didn't seem to affect her, "I kind of liked Barret's sailor suit. He looked so cute."

"Whad'ya mean, 'cute'?!"

Tifa joined in with Aeris' teasing, as was her wont. "You can use them as pyjamas. Right, Cloud?"

Cloud laughed, despite himself. "Barret, you looked like a bear wearing a marshmallow."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean? It's not my fault all them Shinras're punier than me. Takes a real man to fit a suit that size. Listen up y'all! Make sure to mingle like regular folks here!"

"As if your yelling hasn't already spoiled that," Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Welcome to Costa del Sol, ladies and gentlemen – probably the only natural resort town left in the known world, so enjoy your time while you can."

"Remember, this isn't a vacation. We're here after Sephiroth."

"Damnit, Cloud!" Barret scoffed. "You're always the one who's hangin' around, wastin' time. I'm skipping this resort. I'll be at the inn. Call me when you need a leader for y'journey."

"Must we wait until morning to leave?" Red XIII objected. "This heat is drying my nose."

"Sorry, Red." Cloud explained, "It's midday, and there aren't any other settlements we can walk to in time. We'll take a break here, and we'll head out in the morning."

The team split for the day, and Cloud found himself sitting at the edge of the dock, staring at the water as the party disappeared behind yellow buildings, made of an almost powder-like stone. In the windows of the buildings, he could see folks of proper wealth. Vainglorious men and women from the Midgar's top plate primped, changing carelessly into swimsuits. From the docks, he could see the length of the beach as well, spilling out of the town a ways down the coast. The docks were a world apart.

A small byplane bobbed up and down beside him, crawling with shirtless men and their harlots - barely wearing bikinis. Tattoos of every kind snaked around their bodies as they laughed and drank liquor in the afternoon sun.

Cloud recalled that Sephiroth had a tattoo on his wrist; he remembered it as a circle (or was it a straight line?) He never asked about it, frankly he never understood the idea of modifying his skin. A SOLDIER doesn't need aesthetic value - only combat skills.

Sephiroth loved walking that balance, though, between aesthetics and skill. He would tease Cloud about his zeal, telling him that after the war, SOLDIERs could afford to have a good time as well. Now there wasn't time for anything anymore.

The sailors took their vacations on the docks, not in town. This was where the fun was to be had. There were two trollops a dog, their bikinis stretched thinly over plastic balloons – but who was to care when the only women in Junon were slumlings? There were high and low classes in Costa Del Sol, but both kinds were privileged. It referred to taste, not to status.

Cloud's interest in the doxies and their clients waned and he found himself watching the beach. Children and teenagers played in the water. Their parents, grandparents and awaiting whores (classier than the sailors' choice) reclined on long chairs, emptying tall glasses of liquor. They were all citizens of Midgar, Cloud reckoned. Costa del Sol was paradise away from paradise, a chance for the upper crust to see the sun once in a while, to get away from electricity and "rough it" while still sleeping on two feather pillows in a king sized bed for everyone. Sex was sold more than sunscreen here.

It dawned on Cloud that he probably couldn't even afford lunch here.

Aeris stood on the beach. Her combat boots sunk into the sand, but she looked at home. Some eager young men tossed their ball more vigorously, showing off their strength - their aptitude for fun. Cloud felt the pang of jealousy. What good was fun anyway, when Sephiroth could be killing right now?

Aeris giggled at the boys, which encouraged them to play harder and Cloud found himself squinting more than he needed to. He stopped glaring when Aeris looked over at the docks and smiled broadly, waving at him. He raised his arm quickly to wave back, just two fingers raised up, his index and middle. They looked at each other for a long time until one of the ragamuffin boys approached her and gave her a note. She smiled and shook her head at him, and he walked away ashamed. His friends laughed at him and they began to play-wrestle in the water. Cloud looked back at the sea.

Aeris Gainsborough, the last Cetra... except for Jenova, who they had encountered on the cargo boat. They had defeated her -- or at least, part of her. Her arm, or tentacle. Was that the way of the Ancients? To shapeshift? Aeris had never done that, although there was no evidence to prove that she couldn't. Hadn't he mistaken her shape before? He had likened her to Sephiroth in Midgar, another half-Cetra, if one could call a scientific creation half-anything. They were annoyingly enigmatic, the Cetra. Poor Cloud Strife the human, doomed to be ignorant of all mythical goings on, blessed with their power, cursed with the blood of their heretics.

Their power. Their faith. Shiva, the goddess of ice - her memory was collected by the Ancients and put into a materia crystal. Whether she had ever existed is speculative. What mattered is that the memory survived, and Shiva lived on as a memory. Not as real as Cloud or Aeris, perhaps, but perhaps just as true. And now, the power to summon her, to manifest that memory into a force to be reckoned with (she almost singlehandedly took out Jenova) was held in the red materia stone hanging at Cloud's belt, his prize for saving a six year old girl across the ocean.

It had been seven days since the murder of President Cathal Shinra, and the ascension of Rufus. Seven days since Sephiroth arose from Cloud's memories and began his deadly rampage. A week since they left Midgar. So much had happened, so much had changed. Cloud could feel what he could only describe as "things." Emotion was foreign to him. He knew anger, hate, and a lack of these things, but he had never known love outside of perhaps boyhood crushes (although at the moment he couldn't recall one). He never knew sadness, not even when Sephiroth burned his mother to death, the emotions were masked by anger and resolve. He had never mourned for his mother. He could barely remember his mother now. It seemed like an eternity since they left Midgar, an entire lifetime.

_'What a leader I turned out to be.'_ he thought morbidly, _'Wait till Aeris hears that her fearless SOLDIER has premature dementia. I wonder if that's the effects of the mako. Maybe SOLDIERs go mad after twenty years. Maybe I'll crack like Sephiroth - wouldn't that be a sight to see!'_

He looked back at Aeris, who was playing with children now. Down the beach (far enough for Aeris not to notice) was a sight that Cloud did not expect to see. Lounging in a beach chair was a man in a white lab coat, a man so unique looking that even from this far away, Cloud immediately recognized him as Hojo. The silver sunglasses, the lab coat, the vermiculated black ponytail.

He would have some answers!

To get to the beach, Cloud had to wind his way through town. It was bright – the dusty buildings bounced heat onto him. The alleys were hot and dry. The town was bright yellow, as bright as Cloud's hair. He mused that Tifa or Aeris would make fun of him for that were they beside him. But they weren't. He felt their lack of presence. It strangely bothered him.

He arrived on the beach, resisting the urge to inform Aeris. If she saw Hojo now, things would get ugly.

The scientist seemed to be asleep. His small, round silver spectacles rested far down his pointed nose, and his eyes were closed. His lab coat was wide open, revealing his skeletal body (mercifully covered in swimtrunks). His ribs almost popped out of his skin. He looked malnourished and pale, his head monstrously huge - to fit his brain, Cloud surmised.

Cloud stepped in front of the chair, and his shadow on Hojo's face prompted the scientist to wake up and open his eyes slowly.

"I'm busy," Hojo's droning, mesmerizing voice meticulously hit every syllable, making a poem of the common phrase.

"Too bad," Cloud replied, stepping out of the light. Hojo closed his eyes when the sun hit and grunted a disapproving interjection. When his eyes had adjusted, he looked over at Cloud, who was no longer a silhouette.

"Oh yes," Hojo mused, "I remember you now... I remember. It's been a long time, Cloud."

"About a week, Hojo."

Hojo nodded, "Sometimes, a person has to do something like this."

"What are you doing?"

"It should be obvious. I'm getting a tan."

"Don't fuck around!"

"What do you want to hear, SOLDIER?" the scientist snapped quickly, but his voice kept the same eerie calmness – the quivering resolve that had always irritated Cloud. "That we're both after the same goal?"

"Sephiroth."

Hojo cackled, "Did you see him?" Cloud's silence was answer enough, "I see!"

"What is it?"

"Nothing, my foe, nothing. Just a certain hypothesis of mine - I just remembered it. Haven't you ever had the feeling something is calling you? Like you're being led someplace?"

Cloud hid from the question and replied quickly, "I'll go anywhere Sephiroth is at. To stop him and to put an end to all of this."

"I see," Hojo smirked, "and you were in SOLDIER, yes? Ha ha. I'm glad I retired then. Would you like to be my guinea pig? I could experiment on you, enhance you mayhaps and then sell you to Don Corneo as one of his… pets."

Cloud wasn't getting any answers - in fact, he was revealing more information than Hojo was giving back. Irritation graduated into anger and his hands did their usual work – apart from his mind – reaching up for the handle of the buster sword.

"Oh what now?" Hojo laughed, "Are you going to draw your sword? Typical."

"Stop! Cloud!" Aeris came rushing up from behind him. "If he dies, we learn nothing. I know how you feel but you mustn't."

Cloud dropped his hand and Hojo breathed in his victory. "Say, aren't you the Ancient?"

"I'm Aeris. The least you can do is remember my name!"

"I'm sorry, my dear, I have so many specimens that if you aren't numbered I can't keep track of you all, especially if you're not a part of the Jenova Project."

"Stop!" Cloud said. "What's this Jenova Project really all about? What happened after the Nibelheim incident?"

"That's classified information," Hojo sighed, "But trust me, Cloud, you'll find out eventually. As for you, Ancient. If you're not numbered, or if you're not a special case like Jenova or Ifalna, then I have no time for names."

"Ifalna was my mother's name," Aeris said.

"I know - the last full Cetra. How is she?"

"You didn't know?" Aeris asked, "She died."

Hojo was taken aback for a moment, and Cloud almost sensed a pang of regret in his mouth. His eyes were hidden behind his glasses, which glinted in the sun.

"...I see." came his cold response.

"Professor Hojo--" Aeris started.

"I'm not a Professor anymore," he corrected matter-of-factly, "I'm just Hojo now. No other names will work. I'm just buying my time until the end of the world -- won't be long now."

"Hojo. I know I'm an Ancient, my mother told me. Is Jenova an Ancient? Is Sephiroth an Ancient? Do we all have the same blood?"

"Ask them yourself, Sephiroth headed west about an hour ago."


	57. Cid's Diary: Yesterday

_**Disclaimer:** This chapter was written by Cid. Nuff said._

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Cid's Diary: "Yesterday"**

Dear fucking diary.

I'm going to be honest, because I'm pretty good at that, and lying to myself would be a waste of time, both in writing and reading this piece of shit – which will happen once I get so old the only thing left to do is muse about the strapping middle aged bastard I am now. I suppose by writing in this thing at all I'm giving up on life, the cover of it is purple and pink, the pages smell like berries. I might as well run out into town square and shout "Look at me everyone! I have no penis!" I'm just kidding, my penis is HUGE. So I'm going to be honest here, and it's a pretty well known fact in any case. If this pink and purple piece of crap sprouted legs and a pension for asking questions about me, the first thing it would learn is that I have always dreamed of going into outer space.

I was born on February twenty second, thirty two years ago. I hate late winter, it sucks almost as bad as early spring, and it only gets worse from there until we come back around to late winter which always seems to suck more every time I encounter it, with new and comely brats and their rugrat committees coming up with the most craptastic festival names... like "Costa del Snow." Pieces of chocobo crap can't even figure out that it only ever snows on the northern continent! ...except for the rare occasion that shiva will bless us with abnormally cold weather on the west continent, in thanks for Corel's generations of coal mining and the goddamn Shinra's mako reactors and holy-hell-knows-what-else they're doing to the Planet. Global warming pieces of shit and stuff.

"Winterruption" is another whopper. Winterruption! what kind of numbskull idiot kid figured that one out? What town bard had the mental prowess to put two words together in such a fucktarded combo? Winterruption... it makes me sick.

This whole rock stinks, floating alone in the solar system. I learned that at a young age -- being raised in the slums of Midgar provides a good amount of cynicism for a growing tyke like myself. So I started looking at the upper plate, and my old man says to me "son, beyond where you can see, there are people living happily."

Of course, my numbskull old man worked his ass off to continue the dichotomy, but I, at the age of fifteen, moved up to the plate and worked in Sector 8 for some posh theatre that had some opera more depressing than the real world. For every heartbreak in this crappy world, there is always the more annoying, emotional artEEst crying his balls off while I fall asleep in the aisle seat during my break. What a boring play. I lived in Sector 7 with everyone else, everyone else that's dead now because of some bombings I heard about yesterday, which was a good day, yesterday. But I'll get there in a minute. I learned quickly that perception is everything -- things were just as shitty up there as they were in the slums, the only difference being pollution clouds instead of metal above my head. I figured if I could get above the clouds, not much would change, another fantasy of happiness from a naive perspective.

What I didn't know, is that when you're on the upper plate you can't look down, which is why I freakin love flying so much. But anyway, at the age of seventeen I decided to kill myself. I don't remember if I ever really tried, but for some reason or another, here I am writing in a small diary made for a little girl. I can't let Shera see this. Where was I? Oh yes, yesterday. Yesterday reminded me of the first time I saw the stars.

I wound up in Kalm at seventeen, hundreds of cigarettes and shots of whisky later -- damn the folks in Kalm distill a fine whisky! -- and my uncle, or some shit, was like mayor or something so I wasn't homeless. Anyway here I am, drunk off my ass lying in a pool of vom so thick I couldn't feel the cobblestone. The clouds drifted away for the first time and I saw the stars.

The fuckin stars, man. Do you know how many of them there are? Of course you don't, you junk diary, you don't even have eyes! I don't even know, they're countless. Every since Kalm I've wanted to go into outer space. I guess at seventeen that's not always, eh? Heh, I'm a lying sack o shit! So ten years later, I'm about to be the first lying sack o shit in outer space. And then that idiot Shera, and fat man Palmer... and old man Shinra, goddamn the Shinra... so now I'm a useless old coot, waiting until I get cancer from these fags or until Shera gets fed up with my pessimism and kills me with her tea that's always too hot and taste's like a tonberry's ass. Which brings me to yesterday, the first day in six years since I've felt the sweet caress of lady luck. The tea was fine for once, I should've noticed that yesterday would be different. I'm watching the telly, some black guy or something blew up Sector 7 last week and sent all those fuckers to their doom! There was footage of the explosion, which was fun to watch. And then I get a ring on the house phone. It's Rufus. He says he's at the Gold Saucer doing some bla bla bla boring shit, I think I fell asleep at the reciever. But whatever, what wakes me up is that he's coming here to talk to me! He must be trying to restart the rocket project, him and Palmer (I do kind of miss that fat fuck and the lard in his tea). He says he has a very important request for me. He must want me back in Shinra Inc. He must want me to be an astronaut again.

So I think that yesterday, my dream, my shattered, heart-breaking, opera-inspiring dream might have been redreamed by the young and comely. All of my cynicism, my hatred, my old fart disgruntledness might all have been in vain. I smiled at Shera after that, for the first time since before the incident. She burst into tears. Goddamn women...  
Anyway, I figured I might as well get in touch with my feelings, so I went across the street and bought this piece of crap, which is covered now more in tears and cigarette ashes than actual words, and I know I'm not the best at being poetical.

But hey, I'm a fucking space man.


	58. Book 3: Mount Corel

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Mount Corel**

Tifa walked through the streets of Costa del Sol. Three children played with a soccer ball and Red XIII lay peacefully in the shade of a building. One of the children kicked a ball towards the beast and – without looking at it – Red XIII's tail whipped around and batted the ball back to the child.

Red XIII turned to Tifa and smiled, "I have no control; my tail seems to have a mind of its own."

"I'm surprised it didn't light the ball on fire," Tifa smiled.

"Well, that's complicated—"

"Tifa? Tifa Lockheart?"

She turned and saw a young man heading towards her. His red hair was spiked upwards as he strutted through town wearing nothing at all. She didn't recognize him at first.

"I know it's you, Tifa. I'd recognize those, uh, eyes anywhere!" The man glanced from her chest up to her face and it was obvious he was straining to keep his eyes from travelling downwards. She recognized that face from her childhood, but couldn't put a name to it – there were so many.

"It's me," he smiled, "Johnny Fawlher? We were pen-pals when I moved to Midgar?"

"Oh, Johnny!" Tifa remembered. His father ran the general store, they seemed to be family friends on her father's side.

"How long has it been?" he asked.

"Five years, I guess," Tifa shrugged.

"…nope, it's been seven years." Johnny smiled, but his smile was fading. Was it because of Tifa's memory? Or was it because she realized that his father had died five years ago with the rest of their city.

"Wait!" Tifa suddenly cried, "Johnny! You're Johnny! You left before the incident! You survived!"

"Yeah," Johnny smiled, "I was getting worried, I haven't seen anyone else. I thought I was the only survivor for years, but I heard last year that you were working in a slumling bar!"

Tifa nodded proudly.

"Wow," Johnny shook his head, "I would have never thought Tifa Lockheart, the mayor's daughter would end up in a hole like the slums."

Tifa was taken aback, "What do you mean?"

"Well, when I heard, I figured that the incident must have been so hard on you, you probably couldn't muster up the strength to make it in the real world. I felt so bad, Tifa."

Tifa was astounded. For the first time since Cloud's arrival in Midgar, she had to face the reality of the events of five years ago. When Cloud had relayed his version of the story, she listened without relating. It seemed so utterly different from her version that she managed to listen without experiencing. Now, suddenly, the image of flames came flooding back to her – her father, skewered with a sword came crystal clear. She felt a well of tears build up and her eyes became moist.

"I—" she stumbled for words, "I just learned that the Shinra are very corrupt," she was careful not to use the word hate. "I don't think I could go back to the way I was… before."

"Hey, I'm sorry that happened, Tifa," Johnny smiled, but it was full of pity, it was condescending – something Tifa wasn't used to. The lump in her throat grew. "Why don't you come back to my place for a cup of tea? I left Midgar after the Sector 7 incident and moved here."

"S-sure."

By the time they arrived, it was apparent Johnny was a big Shinra supporter. He began making oat straw tea and Tifa looked around. The apartment was nicer than any room she had seen in years. It reminded her of her pampered life before the incident – before a soaring fireball had destroyed her home.

"Now, what's really bothering me," Johnny said as he made tea, "Is that Shinra reported the incident, stating that Sephiroth and another SOLIDER went berserk and burnt the town down before Sephiroth was killed."

"That's more or less what happened, although Sephiroth was really the culprit."

"Who was the other SOLDIER?"

Tifa thought for a long time before telling him, "Oh, no one."

"The funny thing is," Johnny said as the kettle whistled, "Is that ever since then, no one has mentioned the incident, and people I talk to seem to think that it never happened. There wasn't even a memoriam a year after it happened – and they even had a memoriam for when Corel burnt down. It was almost as if it never happened. Everyone on the Planet knows that Sephiroth is dead… except for a few wingnuts who swear that they saw him running around the world. The point is, nobody remembers _how_ he I say he died after burning down Nibelheim, they look at me as if I was from outer space. After I heard you were in the slums, I wanted to visit your bar, but I could never allow myself to get on the train that led down. It was just too… scary."

Tifa raised her eyebrows and nodded, trying to agree with him. She sipped her tea. "Thank you."

"Anyway, enough about bad times. How's that bar business running?"

"It was in Sector 7."

"Oh. Oh Tifa, I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"It's fine. Look, Johnny. It's been really nice meeting you again, and I'll look into the Nibelheim thing and get back to you on that. I should meet with my friends at the Inn."

"Are you going to stay in Costa del Sol long?"

"No, we're just passing through."

"On your way to the Gold Saucer, then?"

"Sure, yeah."

She was almost to the door when she heard him again.

"Hey, did you ever hear from Cloud?"

Tifa shook her head slowly, "No," walking through the door back out onto the street.

* * *

There was no time to waste! Cloud went to the Inn and collected the party, Tifa and Red XIII walked in together after a few minutes. They put the pack on Red XIII and headed out immediately.

"I wonder what you'll do with the pack once we reach my hometown." Red XIII posed, "That's where I'm leaving you."

"You haven't given it any more thought?" Aeris patted the beast on his snout.

"I think that relentless patting is enough thought, thank you Aeris."

The grass outside the beach resort was less saturated than in the Grasslands, matted down not by footsteps but by the slow decay of the world. There was only one path leading from Costa del Sol; it led to the mako reactor at Mount Corel. They headed west upon it as the Corel Mountain region loomed before them in the distance. The path led them along the northern shore, along the Ruby Sea.

Aeris lagged behind, which was unusual for her to do. Most days she would stay at the front or even skip ahead. Cloud slowed to walk beside her.

"Are you tired?" he asked.

She nodded, "I don't know why I am. There's so many things I don't understand... I feel a little uneasy. Cloud… what do you think of me?"

The question surprised him. He wanted to get an answer out as fast as possible, but all he could utter was "I dunno." After a beat, he regained his thoughts and came up with, "I don't understand anything."

"...You're right," she finally said, "Even I don't understand myself. I wonder what part of me is like an Ancient? What is an Ancient supposed to be like? It's strange, isn't it? I don't understand it... Ahh... I'm going round in circles. I wonder if there's any answer to this? Everything's so complicated. "

"Well, when I get like that, I try not to think at all," he hoped his words were comforting.

"How long do we have to walk?"

"Until we find shelter," he said. He knew it would not console her, but it was the truth.

After many hours of walking, they began on the incline. The dirt path quickly turned rocky and led them over a river. They walked right in front of a great waterfall, and cool wet air blew upon them, the mist from the water a refreshing change from the heat of the day.

"The reactor is just over the crest of the mountain," Barret said. Barret seemed to be leading now, with some confidence. He knew this area. It was at that point that Cloud wondered, for the first time, where Barret's hometown was. Tifa had said to Cloud when he arrived in Midgar that Barret had just arrived himself. Was this where Barret was from?

They began their steep incline towards the crest of the mountain. When they finally arrived, they overlooked the entire region. When they turned, they could see Costa Del Sol behind them, and the ocean that seemed endless beyond it. Looking back ahead of them, they saw a long mountain region and a desert beyond, but everything after that was too far away to see. Fog was rolling in.

Looking down, they saw the mako reactor.

The reactor was built inside a chasm, and the walls of the chasm were now lined with machinery. The only thing sticking out of the ground was the large entranceway.

Coming out of the entranceway was a train track that led further into the mountain region. It had been used in the past to get coal from the mines to the city of Corel, but Corel had been destroyed and mako was now the only form of energy existent.

"Since we're here, Barret," Tifa asked, "did you want to bomb the reactor?"

"No," Barret said a little sadly. If he had said 'yes', Cloud would have objected. They had somewhere to go, and that was after Sephiroth.

"I don't even know why you would ask," Barret said, "Jes like Cloud said, we're past the point now of bombing reactors. Besides, I can't do it without a bombing squad anyhow. Biggs, Jessie, an' Wedge, they had all the smarts for it. And they ain't around no more, so we gotta make way with our own course. Our train rolls on different tracks now, an' there's no gettin off until we reach the end."

"Barret's right," Cloud added, "We need to get to Sephiroth as fast as possible. Now, these tracks should lead somewhere."

Following the tracks away from the reactor, they walked for kilometres. Aeris had to stop numerous times just to rest. The third time she did this, the mountainside had been jaggedly cut to make way for the tracks. Cloud leaned against the rocks but he heard a loud chirping above him.

Having his curiosity get the best of him, he climbed up to see what the chirping was.

The cockatrice was a large walking bird unrelated to the chocobo. They were known to roam this mountain region. Cloud had never seen one in person, but he had heard that they had the power to turn people into stone.

Climbing up, he stumbled upon a small nest. Inside, three baby cockatrice wiggled and chirped. They were hungry. Tifa was following close behind him, and when she saw them she exclaimed, "how cute!"

"There's a treasure here," Cloud said, "this nest is made of phoenix downs!"

"Yes, but it's their nest, Cloud."

"Times are tough," he said.

"Oh Cloud! Your hair looks like a chocobo!" she shouted.

Cloud grabbed a phoenix down and tossed it down to Red XIII, who caught it with his mouth. Grabbing the others, Cloud didn't hear the mother cockatrice jump from the cliff above and onto him.

This bird was bigger than Cloud - about twice as big. Its three long tailfeathers had poison tips and it lashed them at him. Cloud scrambled from underneath and drew his sword. The rest of the party backed off as the cockatrice came after Cloud. With a deft swoop he cut off the bird's head and its body fell onto the tracks.

Cloud had swung at the cockatrice with all of his might, and his sword dug itself into the wall. He left it there and dropped his arms as he looked at the corpse of the mother bird. He hadn't expected the fight to go so easily.

The group looked at him, stunned. Cloud, in that moment, felt nothing but guilt for those babies up there - hungry and suddenly orphaned.

"I…" he started, "I killed their mother."

"It was self-defence," Red XIII said, "She would not have let you escape."

"Should I…?" he though aloud, looking up at the nest made of phoenix downs. He thought of three young birds, starving to death. "Should I put them out of their misery?"

"No! no!" Aeris and Tifa pleaded. Barret and Red XIII nodded. Yuffie rested, impartial to either option.

Taking his sword, he lightly bopped each on the head and put them to rest. He climbed back down and they continued onward. Aeris and Tifa seemed disheartened, but Barret patted Cloud on the back.

Yuffie, sensing the girl's discontent, huffed, "They were just stupid birds."

They came to the edge of a chasm as long as Midgar was tall, and even deeper. The bridge to transport trains had a gap in it that Yuffie couldn't even jump, and a rickety old suspension bridge was loosely tied to charred stumps of trees.

"This poor forest," Aeris touched the burned-black spindle of wood, and it crumbled to dust in her hands. The bridge shook.

"You seem to know that this is a forest," Cloud commented, "Is that the Planet speaking to you?"

Aeris shook her head happily, "Nope! There was a sign near the reactor that said 'Corel Forest.'" She omitted the point that the Planet was hurting beyond words here, and her mind was filled with the most hysteric and indelible screams. The spires of trees like horrifying stalactites were gruesome forget-me-nots of the love between man and the Planet. She smiled through it and skipped onto the suspension bridge.

The Corel kingdom (and later, the Corel province) had been completely woodlands, prevailing even with the construction of mako reactors. But the woods were all gone now, burnt and destroyed. As they reached the middle of the chasm, before the bridge began its steep incline, Cloud looked south to see what was now referred to as the Sandy Badlands. Miles of dust and rock - and beyond, impassable quicksand between them and the rest of their journey.

Aeris was at the other side now, jumping and waving at them. Barret was shuffling past her and walking beyond the edge of the cliff. Cloud ran up to meet them.

Barret had lumbered into a collection of tents and shoddily made houses (collection of debris and mortar). They were built upon and around the train tracks, which continued into the mountain tunnel at the edge of town.

The town was small and simple, a microcosm of the slums with a yellow glare that was reminiscent of Costa del Sol - but a darker, unnatural sand; far from the sea and in no ways welcoming. The town had an air about it - it was as if one day, long ago, it had sprung itself legs and traveled the Planet, only to settle back, world-weary to stew in cynicism. It had the wear and tear of old age and an obvious prevalence through natural disaster, but the sagely wisdom of an antique village was not apparent here. Ignorance and bigotry were rampant. Behind a tent, Cloud noticed neighbourhood children digging a shallow grave for a small Wutaian boy they had beaten to death. They scratched away at the earth with rusted hoes - unused in five years - and Aeris rubbed her temples in botheration.

The adults in the town poked their noses between tent flaps, watching AVALANCHE walk through. They were filled with intimidation, Cloud surmised, and with her sister, hostility.

A teeming team of brawlermen approached Barret, whose step was heavy and sombre. Cloud feared his ally would be the next victim of racial-based murder - the story of the small Wutaian boy, writ larger with the same ink. The gun attached and woven into the black man's arm eased Cloud's worriment. He took comfort in the perpetual nagging of the buster sword on his back. Of Aeris's hidden staff.

Barret stopped and watched his approaching foes, and didn't flinch when the leader raised his fist to strike him. By now, Cloud had seen Barret shot, stabbed, slapped and hit, but this punch seemed to affect him more, as if his shield of invulnerability had dissipated after entering the small town. The fist met his head and he stumbled slaunchways.

Before Barret had a chance to wipe the spit off of his chin, Cloud's sword was drawn and Aeris held her staff firmly in both hands. Tifa and Red XIII were at the ready in the back with their fire spells. Tifa looked around the town for more antagonizers, but they remained in their homes. The children ran inside.

Cloud was about to give the nod and signal Red XIII to send the brawlers to their fiery end, but Barret raised his hands to halt them.

"You got a lotta balls comin' back here," the leader said in a gruff voice that Cloud, strangely enough, likened to Barret's crude speech, "They kick ya outta another town or somethin'? S'no wonder, you destroy everythin' you touch."

"It's your fault North Corel's turned into a garbage dump," the one behind him said, flipping a knife between his fingers. Barret regained his stance, and even slouching as he was, he towered over them. He sighed slowly.

"Why doncha say somethin'?" the leader prodded, "Or did you forget what ya done already?"

Barret said nothing for a long time. Eventually, he sighed again and said, "I'm sorry."

"Shit," the leader spat on his face, "He's not even worth the effort. Don't waste your time talking to 'im. Goddamn techno-freak."

The gang turned and ambled off and dispersed among the town. Barret turned to the party and looked down at them with sad little white eyes.

"You heard 'em. It's my fault this town was... destroyed..." He turned and headed towards the edge of town. Aeris ran after him.

"Barret!" she called, "what happened?"

"Don't feel like talkin', Aeris."

The group followed Barret towards the remains of a train station. "What happened?" Cloud repeated.

"My hometown used to be around here," he explained, not even turning around.

Red XIII bounded ahead of Barret and walked just ahead of him, looking back and gauging his expression. "What do you mean, 'used to'?"

"...It ain't here no more. Heard it got buried, in just four years."

"But how could those people say those terrible things?"

"Because, Aeris!" he stopped walking and turned around to face her, his eyes filled with anger, "because it's my fault! All my fault!"


	59. Barret's Recollection: Mako in Corel

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Barret's Recollection: Mako in Corel**

'_I don't know quite what to call myself. Ya see, there are two kinds of people. People who're from Midgar, and people who ain't. No one really calls people Nibellians, or Corelites or Junoners. That shit sounds silly. Usually, when people refer to people by their place it's cause they're makin' fun of 'em. Like Wutaians or Slumlings. People from outside Midgar – I guess – aren't considered people at all._

_My hometown, Corel, was always a coal mining town. So dusty an' poor, but calm. A real small town, this one. The first time I ever heard the word "mako reactor" was back then. Just over four years ago._

_There was a town meetin' at the Village Headman's house, and among those invited were me an' Dyne, childhood friends and fellow coal miners. 'Course, I still had both my arms back then, and I used my own right hand to sign the papers I was handed. There were five of us there in total, the town was bigger than that, course, but we were the leaders, more or less._

_Andretta Scarlet from the Shinra was there with her proposition to build a reactor in Mount Corel. We all had agreed an' signed, 'cept for one person._

_Dyne._

_Well me an' Dyne had been born and raised on coal mining. Our fathers were coal miners, their fathers' fathers and onwards down the bloodline. We had each been mining in the Corel mountains since we was thirteen. Dyne had been doing it for longer than me, seeing as how he was a year older._

_When I was twenty-five, I met a woman named Myrna. We instantly fell in love and got hitched right away. But mining in the coals didn't seem to be enough anymore. Myrna and me, we lived in poverty. My pappy had just died from havin' his lungs in the mines all his life, same as my granpappy (although when he died it didn't hurt so bad). If I continued, I wouldn't be able to take care of my future kids, like how my pap was always so sad, sad because his pap was never there for him. Sad because he was workin' all his life and couldn't be there for me. But he wanted to – that's where I got my fatherin' streak. I jes didn't want to go down the same road. The road that led to death._

_Everyone who fears death runs to the Shinra. That's kinda funny when you think about how much killin' the Shinra're doin._

"_What are we going to do?" asked the Village Headman, "the only one against this is Dyne."_

"_I am definitely against it," Dyne said, "no matter what. There's nothing to talk about if you're thinking about throwing away our coal!"_

_Dyne walked to the center of the room an' pleaded to his friends._

"_Our coal has been protected for generations!" he said, "Our fathers, and theirs before them, risked their lives for it. We have no right to throw it away so easily."_

_I walked up to my friend and smiled like I do. "I know what you mean, Dyne. But no one uses coal nowadays. It's a sign of the times. Mako reactors have been changin' the world for the better. We gotta stay in step."_

_Scarlet walked behind me and added, "Right. Everythin' is mako now. It'll be all right, the Shinra will guarantee your…" Oh, what's that word? "…livelihood once the mako reactor is completed."_

"_Listen, Dyne," I said, "I don't want Myrna to suffer anymore. And I'm sure you don't want Eleanor and baby girl to suffer either. Coal's been takin' its toll on Corel, and if we don't switch, who knows where we'll end up. Dead in the mines, or starving to death."_

_It was true. The number one coal buyer was the close town of Gongaga, and it had just gotten its own mako reactor._

"_I know how you feel," Dyne said, "and I feel the same way too, damnit! But even so, I think giving away our coal mines is wrong."_

_The village headman walked up to Dyne and put a hand, so gentle, on his shoulder._

"_Dyne," he said, "you've got to understand."_

_Tears started to roll all down Dyne's cheeks and he wiped them off with both hands. He took the papers from Scarlet, which included a rough estimate of where the reactor would be built: inside one of the mountain region's many chasms._

_I raised my right hand and took the red pen from Scarlet and held it out for Dyne to take. Dyne plucked it out with his left and signed the bottom, beside the other five signatures._

_Scarlet walked up and took the papers and pen away from Dyne, who began to sob. The town council, me and the headman an' all the men in town, knew what he was feelin'. It wasn't so rare for a man to cry back then. We was all in touch with ourselves. The saying goes that coal miners live with their hearts, everyone else lives with the coals. It never changed, even after we signed the papers. And that was how the Corel Reactor was built – and completed. We all thought it would bring us an easier life…_

_There was an explosion in Gongaga. There had been a bomb planted inside the reactor, and sources pointed out Corel terrorists as the cause of it. That had been a damn lie._

_It happened when Dyne and me were out of town for a few days. Shinra troops jes rolled into town and set fire to everything they saw. Dyne an' I tried to get back, but we had been intercepted by troops on our way back to town. My arm had been injured badly - they shot the flesh clean off the bone._

_I remember runnin' through the town square, watching people I knew falling off water towers to their deaths. The forest around Corel was ablaze, and the ground, once lush and green was turnin' all to dust. To desert_

_Bursting in through the front door of my own house, I was coughin from inhaling the smoke. My house was on fire from the inside out._

"_Myrna?!" shouts me, runnin' into the living room. The glass had been smashed an' a wine-bottle bomb had set my furniture on fire._

_I had lost so much blood I could barely move, the weakness was getting to me. Finding a rope, I quickly created a tourniquet and the bleeding stopped. Thank the stars. I could now use my left arm only, and I used it to punch down the bedroom door, which had been locked._

_This room was filled with smoke as well, and I saw her lying there. Beautiful as always, and still. I ran to her._

"_Myrna!" I said. She turned her face towards me. It was weak, and pitch black. She'd been inhalin' too much smoke and it was obvious. She didn't have much time left._

"_My love," she said slowly, "where is Dyne?"_

"_Dyne's dead," says I, "the Shinra got him. What happened here? Why are they doing this?"_

"_Protect his baby," she said, "protect Marlene."_

_Her last breath came out slowly an she let go of life, an I spent a moment holding her close, feelin' the warmth of her face against mine until the warmth faded and I knew that she was gone._

_I ran to Dyne's house and saw Eleanor, burned and shot and dead on the porch. I ran past her an inside the house. There was no trace of the babe. Runnin' back out into town square, I saw her, the little babe child of Dyne. She was curled underneath the water tower and screaming somethin' fierce._

_The metal legs of the tower began to creak and I was runnin' fast as I could towards her. I ran underneath the tower and picked up the babe, cradling her in my only arm._

_The water tower began to come down and I jump out of the way jes' in time, avoiding the crash and saving Marlene's life._

_Runnin' through the charring streets, baby ceased her screaming and simply clutched onto me, and I took it as a kindness._

_We left Corel and watched the flames. All the townspeople, my relatives. Everyone, everything, gone in a matter of hours. It was only me and little Marlene now._

_We made our way south.'_


	60. Book 3: Desert Rose and Golden Egg

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Desert Rose and Golden Egg  
**

"But more than Shinra, I couldn't' forgive myself. Never shoulda gone along with the building of the reactor."

"Don't blame yourself," Tifa said, "We were all fooled by the promises Shinra made back then. Don't let them convince you that it's your fault for destroying Corel."

Barret shrugged, then tried to distract himself from his memories. He looked around the train station.

The tracks had been hollowed out and two enormous metal ropes had been drilled and anchored into the ground. They led up into the sky and into the clouds above the desert.

"Where do those ropes lead?" Barret asked.

"This is a gondola system," Yuffie explained, rolling her eyes, "it leads to the Gold Saucer. You might have missed that giant blue gondola sitting right there, but it's the only way up and outta here."

Indeed, hanging down off the ropes – nestled in the hollow tracks – was a metallic transport with two great propellers. There was enough room to fit all of them inside comfortably.

"Could Sephiroth have gone anywhere else?" Cloud asked.

"Well, since he can fly and walk through walls, he's got a few more options," Yuffie shook her head sardonically.

Beside the door of the gondola, there was an electronic clock counting down from thirty seconds. "It's leaving soon," Cloud decided, "There will be more time to talk about this later. Let's get on."

They filed on and the door slid shut.

Inside, the gondola rocked as the propellers shook to life. Aeris stumbled awkwardly as the gondola jerked forward and began the steep incline. Barret stood at the back, watching North Corel shrink smaller and smaller out the window, cradled in the arms of the fruitless Corel Mountains. The Sandy Badlands stretched forever below them.

They sat in silence for a long time. When her ears popped, Aeris smiled and attempted to make conversation about it. And oh, how it reminded her of the train from the slums to upper Midgar. Cloud nodded, remembering riding atop the train on his way to the first bombing mission – the wind had been so strong that when his ears popped, it felt like his whole head had been a wind tunnel for a moment. He didn't voice these thoughts; he knew Yuffie would find a way to insult him.

Red XIII said it reminded him of the elevator in the Shinra building. Tifa said it reminded her of the elevators in the mako reactors, and a hushed silence fell over the gondola. Barret's presence was felt even though he was trying to make himself appear small in the corner. As the conversation continued, Tifa walked inconspicuously behind Barret and grabbed for his hand. He shook it away.

"What's that ahead?" Aeris asked. Cloud looked out the window.

Out of the sand – kilometres away – sprouted a pillar that from this distance was the same colour as the sand. Yuffie pointed and announced, "There it is. The Gold Saucer: Home of Stuffed Moggles."

The ropes continued upwards into the clouds and the desert rose.

"What is a moggle?" Red XIII asked.

"I don't know," Yuffie sighed, "A mog or moogle or something."

"I've never heard of a _moggle_," Red XIII pondered, "But you should know that mogs and _moogles_ are two very different things."

"They're both white and furry," Yuffie sighed, "That's all I care about."

"Why would you stuff such adorable sounding animals?" Aeris asked, patting Red XIII's nose.

"Why would Shinra do a lot of things?" Barret added, and silence filled the gondola once more.

After a while, Tifa corrected him, "Shinra doesn't own the Gold Saucer, it's an independent faction; big enough to attract tourists but small enough to stay under the radar."

"What's so special about a casino?" Cloud asked.

"See for yourself," Yuffie thumbed languidly behind her.

The Gold Saucer was a casino above the clouds, to say the least.

It appeared to be a collection of seven massive golden eggs, if eggs grew on a stalk. The golden pods were wired together in a series of chutes and slides. When they got closer, they could see that each golden egg was in fact as large as a small town and completely spherical in shape. The majesty of it caught them all by surprise. From everywhere that they could be placed, moving searchlights shone into the setting sky. The sun was down and it was getting almost dark enough for the great fireworks show.

Around and up and down the casino zoomed great roller coasters, and echoing in the distance they could hear the sounds of laughing and screaming and amusement.

Looking out the gondola's window, Aeris was filled with delight. She was temporarily blinded as a great spotlight passed the window; it continued its task of lighting up the sky.

Barret sat in the dark corner of the gondola, quietly huffing to himself. Observing his lot, Cloud smiled. Tifa and Aeris, now the best of friends, giggled and pointed at chocobos far below them. He imagined that neither of the girls had ever had a close female friend in their childhoods – from what little he could gather. Aeris didn't seem to have any friends at all in the slums – only her mother. He guessed that she had been too strange for social events – or perhaps it was just that she didn't enjoy the company of criminals. Tifa had been popular enough in Nibelheim, but now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure there were any girls at all besides her – perhaps he was thinking of girls worth noting. That couldn't be right… there were plenty of girls. He shook Nibelheim out of his thoughts and looked at Red XIII. The beast put his paws on the windowsill and looked around frantically with his eye. Barret wasn't into bright and happy things, as Cloud had guessed. He knew them so well now, after travelling most of the world with them. Looking ahead, he saw the great flashing letters: Welcome to the Gold Saucer! They lit up one at a time, in every color of the rainbow.

'_Maybe it is time for a vacation,'_ Cloud thought briefly. The urgency of their mission soon returned – but the yearning would linger for a while to come.

The ropes led the gondola into the uppermost egg – its entrance was a long black tunnel. They sailed under the flashing letters and along blinking yellow lights until they reached the entranceway.

When they emerged, they came out of what had been made to appear like a large mog's head made of plastic, foam and metal. The tunnel that the gondola emerged from was a great gaping mouth. Their ride was halted to a stop by two upward pointing fangs jutting out of the mog's underbite. As the door of the gondola slid open, they appeared to be climbing out of the giant mog's round, white head.

The ground was a polished gold, and the dirt on their boots and clothing made each of them look terribly out of place. Cloud had a completely stunned disposition. He hadn't really planned on going anywhere so vastly… different.

Walking past a large yellow plastic tree (or was it made of marshmallow?) and up to the door to the rest of the park, the darkly dressed warrior greeted the garish lady selling tickets.

"Welcome to the Gold Saucer!" she smiled too brightly at them.

"Thanks."

"Did you want a single pass or a lifetime pass?"

"Actually, I have a question. I'm looking for someone who might have entered this park. Do you have a record of all your guests?"

She eyed him up and down, and her eyes flashed to his sword for a split second before her smile returned to its full, uncanny brightness. "Is this official Shinra business?"

Yuffie snorted from behind him. He expected Tifa to shut the girl up, so he simply smiled and said, "It's not a big deal, but we would appreciate the park's complete cooperation."

The woman's smile faded again, just a little. She was afraid – perhaps afraid for her life. She turned to a dias beside her and moved her fingers along a touchscreen. "I'll just need to get clearance from the park manager, give me a moment."

The woman put on a headset and in moments she was talking. "Dio this is the front desk… I'm doing fine… yes… y… yes Dio, we're doing fine up here… listen, Dio. Some folks from Shinra are here… no, there's no problem… no, they're not here about that… I don't think they want to talk about that either… hold on…" she turned to them. "You didn't want free admission to the park, did you?"

Cloud shook his head.

"No, not that either… Dio?... yes, hi… this is the front desk, still… yes… no, we're still fine here… listen, there's a SOLDIER here that wants… no, he seems friendly… I'm aware… thanks, you're very sweet… he's looking for some information regarding one of our guests… I know we don't usually give… should I set up a meeting?... alrighty… okay… I'll make sure… thanks… you too."

She took the headset off and turned to them. "Sorry about that," she smiled again, "You can imagine anyone who built a place like this would be a little eccentric. That's just the way we like it here at the Gold Saucer!"

"Great," Cloud sighed, "So can we go in?"

"Just give me a few moments here. A daily pass is one hundred gil each for your friends here, but for you all I need is your name and we can charge your department directly."

Cloud hadn't expected that.

"Sir? Your name?"

"Cloud Strife." _'Shit!'_

She thumbed away at the touchscreen pad, oblivious to the tension that ripped through the group. They held their breath as her brow furrowed, her eyes fixed on the screen.

"Hmmm," she hummed.

"What is it?" Cloud kept his outwardly stoic stance.

"You don't seem to be on record here. Perhaps I spelled it wrong."

_'They've already taken my name off the record,' _Cloud thought. _'At least it isn't flashing fugitive!'_ That provided little comfort - he had to come up with a name soon.

"Try Zack Knightblade," Aeris stepped up beside Cloud, "He's our commander."

She smiled and went back to the dias. All eyes in the group slowly turned to Aeris. She looked back at everyone, with the same exasperated hope.

"All right, did you want everyone on the same bill?"

Cloud nodded and his blue eyes flashed.

"All right. Welcome to the Gold Saucer. Dio will be waiting for you in Speed Square."

The great doors behind her swung open and the music of the theme park (which had been mercifully muffled throughout that entire affair) now blew at them full force, amplifying Cloud's enormous headache.

"Hundred gil each?" Barret muttered, "man, the look of this place ain't the only thing that's ridiculous!"

"I wonder how much a lifetime pass is?" Aeris asked, "A billion _jillion_ gil?"

The main hall was dome shaped with six round portholes surrounding them. Above each was a sign:

* * *

Speed Square – World Renowned Roller Coaster!

Battle Square – The Bloodiest Coliseum This Side of Wutai!

Chocobo Square – Place Your Bets!

Event Square – Enjoy One of Our Daily Performances!

Ghost Square – Sleep Like the Dead… With the Dead!

Wonder Square – Find your Fortune With an Unparalleled Myriad of Games!

* * *

"How ironic," Red XIII noted, "that they should be called 'squares.'"

Looking closer, Cloud identified the portholes as chutes, brimmed with glowing rainbow coloured edges and lights that led all the way down a tunnel slide. Transportation to and from other sections of the park was through chutes.

"Yay!" Aeris shouted, "let's have fun!"

"We're here to find Sephiroth," Cloud said.

Tifa walked up beside Cloud. "Someone should look after Barret."

Aeris was already on her way over. Cloud smacked his forehead with his hands. She would not make the situation any better.

"Hey Barret," Aeris said, "cheer up."

"I ain't in no cheery mood," Barret replied, "so jes leave me alone."

Leaning in towards Barret's face, Aeris said, "That's too bad. We're gonna go play!"

Barret exploded with rage, turning to Aeris. He waved his arms around frantically, "Then go fuckin' _play_! But don't forget! We're here to find Sephiroth!"

Aeris stepped back a few steps.

"Aren't you like twenty-something?!" Barret shouted, "what the hell are you doin actin like you twelve?! _Go fuckin' play_! Arrgh!!"

Barret ran towards a chute and jumped inside, disappearing. Cloud read the sign above the chute. 'Battle Square.'

Aeris quieted down and walked back to Cloud. "Are you coming with me?" she asked.

"We need to meet with Dio." Cloud said.

Aeris rolled her eyes, "Fine." Now it seemed as if Aeris needed the comforting more than Barret. She ran to the chute that said 'Wonder Square' and sat on the rainbow coloured brim. She slid down into the chute, disappearing quickly.

"Wait!" Cloud ran to the chute, "We can't split up!" It was too late, she was long gone. He turned back to Tifa, Yuffie and Red XIII. "If Sephiroth is here, we need strength in numbers – who knows who might have the advantage. I'll follow Aeris and meet with this Dio. You three should tail Barret – don't confront him, he just needs to let off some steam. I'll meet you in Battle Square in half an hour."

"Wow," Yuffie smirked, "look who's the leader."

"See you in half an hour."

* * *

The moment he began down the slide, he had a sudden urge to turn back, but it was far too late. It seemed that he was being moved along by more than just gravity, he was sliding through the chute at incredible speed.

Twisting and winding through the chute, Cloud was assaulted with an array of colors and shapes, each going by faster as he slid quicker downwards. It felt like forever. He could hear Aeris' shouts of joy from below him, and suddenly, the chute was not going down anymore.

Cloud was travelling up. With the inertia from his fall, the slide had turned up and he was sailing bottom-first up a chute.

The chute suddenly opened up and he found himself literally flying by the seat of his pants towards the ceiling. When he slowed, he twisted himself around so that his feet were facing the ground and he landed nimbly on the cushioned floor.

There was a stuffed mog in front of him. Just over a metre tall, the white, furry creature had the signature underbite and four fanged teeth used for eating trees. The thin arms ended in big white hands complete with massive opposable thumbs. Atop the stuffed mog was a robotic, anthropomorphic cat that was speaking with Aeris. Turning to Cloud, the cat said in a very happy robotic voice,

"Hey you!! What're you lookin' so down for!?"

Cloud shook his head. The voice was annoying, and the robot cat spoke through a megaphone right at Cloud's face. The stuffed mog suddenly bounded towards him. Cloud surmised that there was a system of robotics inside the mog as well. Aeris jumped and giggled, bringing her clasped hands to her mouth to prevent any more giggling.

"How 'bout it? Want me to read your fortune!? A bright future! A happy future! Oh, but don't hold it against me if it doesn't come true!"

Cloud looked at the robotic cat with complete confusion. The cat lowered the megaphone and grabbed its head.

"So sorry!" said the robot cat, "I'm a fortune telling machine, the name is Cait Sith!"

"You're a machine. I've never heard of a machine programmed for entertainment."

"Well then, welcome to the Gold Saucer!" Cait Sith chirped – but unlike anyone else they had encountered. This welcome was completely sincere, and despite the tinny voice coming through the rounded mouth of the cat, it was endearing.

"Can you tell me where a man named Sephiroth is?" Cloud asked whimsically.

"Sephiroth?" Cait Sith said, "Okay, sure, everyone stand back!"

The mog jumped back a few steps, Cloud and Aeris stood together and watched the robot cat as he began to hum. As Cait Sith hummed, his Mog began to dance. It wasn't a very impressive dance, just wobbling back and forth throwing its arms into the air.

Out of the mog's mouth a piece of paper came, it stopped when it reached the end, and Cloud ripped it off and took a look.

"...Ordinary luck," he read, "It will be an active fortune. Give into the good will of others, and something big'll happen after summer. ...Wait...hold on..."

Cait Sith seemed as confused as anyone. "Let me try again!" he shouted through the megaphone, and began to hum again. The mog did his dance a little faster this time, and once again the paper came out. Cloud ripped it off and read:

"Be careful of forgetfulness. Your lucky color is...blue?" Cloud crumpled the paper and tossed it into a chute, "Forget it," he said.

"Wait, wait give me another chance! Wait! Let me try it again!"

Humming quicker this time, Cait Sith danced himself on top of the mog's head, and the mog did a quick little dance and printed out Cloud's ticket, which he read to himself.

"What the?" he asked.

"What does it say?" Aeris asked.

"What you pursue will be yours," Cloud read, "but you will lose something dear."

"I don't know if it's good or bad," the cat shook his head, "This's the first time I ever got something this ominous. Well then, shall we?"

"Pardon?" Aeris asked the robot cat.

"Being a fortune teller, this is gonna bug me. If I don't see how it turns out, I'll never be able to relax. So, I'm going with you!" he said.

"Do you do this will all of your customers?" Cloud asked.

"Nothing like this has happened before, I think it's safe to assume this is a first. And I'm coming with you no matter what you say!"

"You're welcome to follow us," Cloud said, "but I don't think you'll like where we're going."

Cait Sith jumped up and down on the mog's head and picked up the megaphone "I won't let you down!" he shouted.


	61. Book 3: Gateway to Heaven

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Gateway to Heaven**

After the forests of Corel had transformed into a harsh desert, Dio – aided by shares from Don Corneo and Shinra Inc. built his amusement park. It was in the best interests of the shareholders – before Dio privatized – that the park should be mostly geared towards children. In most cases, the park was. Flashing lights both appealed to and perpetuated short attention spans, and chubby, friendly mascots and games kept families from all over Midgar trekking across the world to see the golden beanstalk – this desert bloom.

Dio, however, never relented some of his less appropriate eccentricities. As a nudist, he originally designed the park as a clothing-optional entertainment complex. Despite his protests that nudity helped inspire peace, the park's sales never picked up until he relented and began to wear clothing around his park.

His large, muscular build and handlebar moustache couldn't have helped, either.

After being constrained daily by a fuchsia thong, Dio kept his buoyant attitude, but his vision for the park had been compromised. He privatized and shut out the shareholders. The Gold Saucer had been Shinra free for over three years.

* * *

With Cait Sith in tow, Cloud and Aeris made their way back to the six holes in the ground - labelled with all the areas of the Gold Saucer.

"Where are we headed?"

"First we have to meet Dio at Speed Square," Cloud looked for the hole. "We're trying to see if he knows where Sephiroth is."

"Speed Square! That's easy, follow me!"

As if on cue, Mog jumped down into the first hole and disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel. Aeris looked briefly at Cloud and jumped in herself. Cloud waited a few moments to prevent some heinous accident on the other side; then leapt into the darkness.

The tube led him slant-ways like a slide for a while. Soon, however, it turned and was leading Cloud up by his feet – hanging him upside-down. At first it was a simple matter of inertia, the slide down was propelling him upwards. He began to slow and obey gravity's pull, but a moment before he came to complete stop jettisons of air exploded from around the walls of the tube and propelled him upwards again. It became cold and windy as bursts of air exploded around him, throwing him further up the tube until his ears popped again. The wind stopped and Cloud flew up in silence for a while. The tube widened up and one final gust blew him right-side-up and threw him out of the tube – he found himself stumbling over marble floor. His reflexes prevented him from crashing into Aeris and Mog – who were in a bundle on the floor inches away from him. He looked behind him. Instead of round portholes as entrances to the tunnels, there were wide doorways.

"Hey, boy!" came a deep, jovial voice behind him. Cloud turned around. Cait Sith was climbing back onto Mog while attempting to adjust his crown at the same time. Aeris was brushing off her dress. The voice was coming from a thickly built man with rippling muscles and no clothing except for the thong - failing to conceal the hair bulging out from between his legs. His massive hands – with protruding, pulsing veins – rested on his hips and he smiled gleefully at Cloud.

"Boy?" Cloud questioned, he hadn't been called that since before he could remember. The man smiled at him and Cloud recalled that terrible afternoon in Don Corneo's mansion, with the teeming ruffians grabbing at him, lusting for sex in the most violent of ways. The more he thought about it though, the less this new person seemed like them. He had a carefree smile and manner, with a glint of benevolent intelligence in his eyes.

"How is it? You having fun?" then, glancing at Aeris, "So I see! You _are_ having fun! Well, good! Good for you, boy!"

"My name is Cloud – you can stop calling me boy."

"Pleased to meet you, Cloud. My name is Dio. I'm the owner of the Gold Saucer. Whoa! Hello, Cait Sith!"

"Hey Dio!"

"Cait Sith is one of our newer editions, just shipped in. I see he's taken to you!"

"Yeah, about that," Cait Sith shrugged, "I resign."

Dio suddenly had a myriad of emotions on his face, and then he became steely expressionless. Cloud had almost caught a glimmer of contempt for Cait Sith, which betrayed his blithe attitude thusfar. "Robots," Dio smiled with a sigh, "you build 'em, turn around and they're ready to leave nest."

"I was notified by the front desk that I could meet you here," Cloud said professionally. "I'd like to discuss one of your guests who could potentially pose a major threat. Is there somewhere we can sit down?"

"There is a cafeteria just over here."

"I was thinking somewhere away from the public – this is a sensitive matter."

"I'm sorry, boy. I don't let guests into my offices."

"And if it's official Shinra business?"

Dio smiled at him, but his brow was furrowed, "I wouldn't overstep your bounds, son. This is still my park – a peaceful resort."

Unaware of Shinra's lack of influence, Cloud stumbled for nearly a second before cleanly stating, "I'm afraid that might not be the case for long."

Aeris was aghast at Cloud's manner of speech. He had completely transformed into a diplomat. This was a perfect example of SOLDIER training.

"Let's step away from the tunnels," Dio nodded and they moved away from the doorways as people continued to file out of them and towards attractions in Speed Square.

"We're looking for a man named Sephiroth," Cloud said, "He is responsible for two massacres in the last few weeks – one of which killed Cathal Shinra."

"I thought those terrorists did that."

"Well," Cloud smiled, "It's nice to know that the Gold Saucer isn't _completely_ a world apart. " There was a hint of malice in his voice that he thought fitting for a Shinra employee in the Gold Saucer. "New evidence shows that he was involved and is on the run. In the interests of your guests, yourself and anyone else he might come into contact with, I'd like to know if he has been spotted entering or exiting the park."

There was a silence when the three of them watched Dio examine Cloud. Dio nodded. "I'll get some people on it. What did he look like?"

"A black cloak with white pauldrons."

"Pauldrons?"

"Shoulder armour – great, bulbous white metal. He has long silver hair and an extremely long, dangerous-looking sword made by the Wutaian sword-smith Masamune. He was last spotted yesterday in Costa del Sol so he could have appeared in the last twelve hours."

"He should be easy to recognize. I'll have the guards review the security footage and get back to you – you will be paged. In the meanwhile, he might be in Battle Square – that's where his competition would be."

Cloud recalled Barret leaping into the tube for Battle Square. Without thinking, he ran into the doorway with the appropriate plaque above. The tube threw him forward with a gust of air and he was falling headfirst down. He heard Cait Sith's loud "Geronimo!" behind him.

* * *

Stumbling out of another doorway, Cloud faced a thin but excessively long staircase that lead up to a small building above, swirling with spotlights painting the clouds purple and yellow.

At the bottom of the staircase stood a body, leaned against a pillar in his last moments of life. He had been a guard of some sort, wearing an intimidating Gold Saucer security uniform, now splattered with blood from small holes ripped into him. Blood had drooled out of his mouth and his eyes were rolled back. As Aeris and Cait Sith arrived in Battle Square, Cloud was already bolting up the staircase in a berserk fury. They followed.

The inside of the building was smeared in blood. It was a massacre. Debris lay over the bodies of patrons and fighters.

"Another massacre," Aeris said somberly. "Sephiroth did this, didn't he?"

Cloud was leaning over a body. "No, not Sephiroth. They're all shot. Sephiroth would never use a gun."

Something rustled from behind the counter, and someone moaned. A survivor! Cloud bolted behind the counter. A young woman in uniform looked at him with fading eyes.

"Who did this to you?" Cloud asked, holding her head.

"A man… with a gun on his arm…" she succumbed to the bullet wounds and died in his arms.

Aeris stepped back and threw her hands to her mouth, "It can't be!"

"Freeze!"

A swarm of darkly clad security officers ran into the building, pointing their guns at Cloud. Dio walked in from behind them, still barely clothed, the cheery disposition replaced with horror and anger.

"Did you guys do this?!" he asked with disbelief.

"No, it wasn't us!" Cloud pleaded.

"I must have been wrong…" Dio muttered to himself, and Cloud wasn't exactly sure what he was wrong about. The owner of the Gold Saucer looked at Cait Sith with that same contempt as he had shown earlier.

"Hurry and run!" Cait Sith shouted, "It's going to get ugly!"

Cait Sith ran to the enormous iron door at the back of the room – it was left open. Aeris followed. Cloud had no intention of running, they were innocent, Dio wasn't a part of Shinra, they would explain their situation and be let free…

Unless Cait Sith knew something about Dio that Cloud did not. "Hey!" Cloud shouted and ran after Aeris.

"After them!" Dio shouted.

They were in the coliseum – the gladiator's entrance. Between the first rows of spectators and the battle arena was a large moat of purple water – where more patrons floated lifelessly, bobbing along with the waves. Cait Sith and Aeris were huddled on the battle arena, which floated steadily above the water. There was no way out. Cait Sith should have known that this was a dead end. Unless he was trying to lead them into a trap. With Barret's crime apparent to Cloud, he wasn't sure who he could trust. Not Cait Sith, Dio, Barret, least of all himself. He longed desperately for that voiceless voice to return and tell him what to do. He was lost, helplessly lost.

"That's as far as you go," called Dio from the stands. He had made his way there and was flanked by three walking machines. Each seemed to resemble Shinra's roboguards – only modified so that instead of particle cannons on their arms they had large holding devices.

'_So,'_ Cloud thought, _'Dio is friendly with Shinra. This doesn't bode well for us now, does it?'_

"Wait!" he pleaded, "Listen to—"

"Cloud!" Cait Sith interrupted.

The three roboguards leapt into the battle arena and closed in on them, clamping their wrists and ankles. They made no struggle. The entire Gold Saucer complex was under Dio's command, they were hopelessly outnumbered.

"Round up their friends if there are still any around," Dio ordered to the security force, "take them all to the Gateway."

And Cloud was knocked out.

* * *

When Cloud opened his eyes, he was shrouded in darkness. He tried to move but his wrists and ankles were still fastened tightly to the modified roboguard. He looked to and fro, but all he could see was endless blackness, as if his eyes were not open at all.

"Hello?" he asked.

With a loud clanking noise, a single spotlight illuminated the floor in front of him. An enormous round hole led down into further blackness. Around the hole, embossed in bronze were the words: Gateway to Heaven.

Heaven – it was something that humans called paradise when god was still in everyday vocabulary. It existed in the times before Shinra, before Cloud was born. His mother had believed in that god, in the heavens and hells. Now she was dead and gone – had she made it to that heaven? Had she returned to the stars? Or as the Cetra believed, the Planet? In any case, she was dead. Dead and gone, and Cloud was alone with the awful reminder of her afterlife. His religious knowledge was heavily limited, but he somehow found the irony in a hole leading down being likened to the gates of heaven. "Down to the pits of hell" was the term often used. Heaven was oft likened to the stars.

"One more to go," Dio's voice echoed through the room. Cloud couldn't see him.

"Yes," said an assistant.

"Hey!" Cloud yelled, "Pay attention!"

"There's no need to listen!" Dio shouted, "I made a background check – you don't work for Shinra – you're a fugitive. The merciful thing to do would be to give you up to them but because of you my guests are dead."

"But we didn't do it!"

"Sephiroth did? The same Sephiroth that died five years ago? Nice distraction, but this isn't amateur hour. Pay for your crimes down below – if you survive. Do it."

"Yes sir."

And then the roboguard walked up to the Gateway to Heaven and tossed Cloud inside. In he fell, down into the unending blackness. He let his limbs fall slack and they blew about as he continued to fall.

He realized that he was probably being dropped all the way down the stem of the desert rose down to the Planet's surface. Such a fall would surely kill him. He remembered his last great tumble, not even half this distance and he nearly died. He should have died back then, in Aeris's church. He escaped that death, but this fall was much more severe. Every second he fell he felt death in his velocity, whispering into his ears with the wind. It seemed to say "No one can escape me… no one can escape me…"

And so it was, death catching up with him, after over a week of running from it. This quest – this need to find and devour Sephiroth – was it only occupying his time? Distracting his mind from the inevitability of death?

Onward he fell until he noticed a tiny speck of light below him. He was falling so quickly that the opening quickly grew and before he knew it he had fallen right out of it and was free falling through the air. The ground was impossibly far below him and nothing in the way to stop him. The stem of the Gold Saucer was beside him, as wide as the thickest mountain and taller than he could see. He tumbled downward still, noticing the desert around him – stretching out forever. Even if he survived the fall, where would he go? Out into the Sandy Badlands, to get lost and forgotten in the quicksand?

He felt the tug of magic on his soul from below him. Someone was below him? Whoever they were, they were a powerful magic user. He felt his soul leave his body for a split second – and when it returned, he felt himself slowing down.

He continued to slow – someone was casting a spell on him, wanting him to survive! Once again, death's grip on him loosened as the wind began to slow, its whispers not so harsh. "Not today…" it seemed to gasp before his ears popped. He looked and saw the tiny figure of Yuffie below him, holding her green materia with both hands. She was trying to slow his fall.

The spell came too late and Cloud hit the ground too fast, shattering his knee. He crumpled onto the sand.

"Oops!" Yuffie cried. "Aeris, a little help here?"

Aeris was already on it, and Cloud felt euphoria distract him while the pieces of his bones moved around in his leg to reform their original shape. Aeris's healing spell was quickly over and Cloud could once again stand up.

"Thank you," he said to the girls.

"I'll add it to the list of things you owe me for," Yuffie smirked.

"Are you all right?" Aeris asked, weary from her casting.

"Where are we?"

"A desert prison," Cait Sith said from behind him, "the ruins of Corel." Cloud couldn't say he was ecstatic to find that the robot survived the fall. "Yup, a natural prison in the middle of the desert – surrounded entirely by quicksand. I heard that once you get in, you never get out. But there was one special exception…"

At this point, Cloud had stopped listening, because he had spotted Barret sitting on a nearby piece of scrap metal.

"Barret?" Cloud ran forward. Barret stood and turned to them, his eyes were brimmed with tears. Upon seeing them, he stepped back, and Cloud stepped forward.

"Stay back!" Barret ordered, "This is something I gotta deal with! Jes' leave me alone!" He turned and ran off behind a derelict wooden building.

"Whew!" Cait Sith chimed, "That's one of your friends? He sure looks dangerous."

"Let's get one thing straight, Cait Sith," Yuffie sneered at the robot, "We are all dangerous, and where we're going is probably going to kill us all – as soon as we get out of this prison. So if you want to turn back now, do it or stop complaining."

"Cloud, what should we do?" Aeris asked, "Barret's not his normal self."

"This one's been shot too," Cloud inspected the body of a criminal lying in the sand. He continued around the corner to find that Barret was gone.

"Well good riddance to him," Yuffie said, "He decided to go killing crazy and get us all thrown down here, he can rot alone."

"I need to find out just what happened," Cloud said.

"When did you suddenly get such undying faith in people?" Yuffie rolled her eyes, "You're such a putz."

"Are the others down here?" he asked.

"Yeah," Yuffie said, "Tifa and Red are trying to find a man named Coates, who can apparently get us out of here. As soon as you three ran off up there, security troops rounded us up, told us that we were aiding a terrorist."

"Was it Shinra?" Aeris asked.

"Shinra doesn't have any control up there," Cait Sith chimed in, "Besides friendly trade, we don't—"

"Shut up," Yuffie interrupted, "Couldn't have been Shinra, they didn't recognize Tifa or Red. Of course, Cloud, it's really you and Barret who are the notorious ones – and that's only rough description."

"Whoa whoa!" Cait Sith leapt off Mog and marched over to Cloud, "Are you tellin' me that you're a gang of terrorists?"

"I didn't say that. I said you wouldn't like where you're going."

"Yeah, I'll say. Look where we are now!"

Yuffie rolled her eyes, "I'll bet Cloud is tired of the old 'We're chasing a man named Sephiroth,' line. I'll fill the robot in, you guys find Barret. We've got a big prison to search."

"No need to search," Cloud pointed to the ground, "Barret leaves a big footprint."

Indeed, Barret's enormity (in body and shoe size) had made a trail of massive imprints in the sand. Cloud could fit nearly two of his footprints in one of them.

"Footsteps!" Cait Sith exclaimed the obvious, "Follow!"

* * *

Tifa knocked on the door of the metal trailer that lead to Arthur Coates' office.

"Come in," echoed a gentle voice from inside. Tifa opened the door and walked in.

"Why hello!" greeted the seated silhouette, outshined by the lines of sunlight that poured in through the blinds behind him, "You must be a newcomer. I warn you now, if you ever do harm to me you'll be dead within seconds. However, you can also eke out a respectable living down here among your kind. If you were hardy enough to survive the fall, then you shouldn't have too much trouble surviving the prison."

"I don't want to kill you," Tifa said resolutely, "and I don't want to stay here either. I want to go up."

The silhouette leaned back and propped his feet up on the desk. "You don't seem to understand how things work down here, beautiful. This is the Gold Saucer's garbage dump, which makes you garbage. Gorgeous, gorgeous garbage."

From behind Tifa in an instant, a red blur flew across the trailer and pounched onto the desk. Red XIII roared loudly at Coates. The cocking of guns was heard from all sides of the trailer. Six guns were on the beast.

"Red, it's not worth it," Tifa said, "He's the boss down here."

"On the contrary," Coates relaxed as Red XIII leapt back from the desk and sat by Tifa's side. "I control the elevator here. The real boss of Corel Prison is much more ruthless than I. You see, not even six trained guards and a businessman can control this rabble, these scrubs." There was such disdain in the way he described his miniature elite force. "No, they govern themselves. It's mostly chaos, but everyone down here, including me, answers to the one they call The Boss. If you don't have his permission, you can't go up. Even if you have his permission, you aren't just free. You'd have to win a chocobo race to earn your freedom – the races are watched by Dio and he gives the final word."

"That doesn't seem like justice," Red XIII sighed, "Then again, they threw us down here in the first place."

"Wow, a talking bear," Coates shook his head, "now I've seen everything."

* * *

Cloud and Aeris ran ahead through the sand, following Barret's trajectory. Yuffie and Cait Sith were in the back row, Yuffie was giving a recapitulation of the events of the week, bragging more than storytelling. The main points, however, she did manage to convey.

The footsteps lead up to a loosely hinged wooden door of a house. Cloud paused a moment and looked back at the robotic cat.

"Now that you know," he asked, "are you still sure you want to follow us?"

Cait Sith paused a moment, resting his giant white gloved hands on Mog's head. He shook his head slowly, then looked up with body language that Cloud could interpret as determination.

"The thing you are looking for is Sephiroth, isn't it?" he asked. Cloud nodded. "Well, now that I know that the fortune was real, I have to go. And if I can help it, you won't have to lose anything along the way. It is my duty as a fortune teller."

"Whatever," Yuffie said, and entered the house. Everyone followed, even hopping Mog.

It was a house ravaged by fire, most of the wooden floorboards were soot and ash, filled with sand blown in from the four years of wind and fire. A couch lay near a wall, singed but in tact. Yuffie walked up to it, touching the blackened fabric.

Barret ran in from a door opposite where they had come in. Upon seeing them, he stumbled back and raised his gun arm.

"Didn't I tell you not to come here?!" he exclaimed.

"Ju-just hold on for a second!" Cait Sith stuttered, "We just want to talk! You'll understand if you just hear us out!"

And without a moment's hesitation, the sound of gunfire filled the room and bullets flew out of Barret's gun arm. He was firing. They raised their arms to shield their faces, but none of them had been hit. Cloud was the first to notice. He lowered his arms and looked at Barret, who was shooting the couch.

When the firing stopped, Barret lowered his gun arm and looked menacingly at the couch. A faint grunt was heard from behind it as someone collapsed. Yuffie looked behind the couch to find a scrawny, sinister looking man riddled with bullets, his dagger half drawn from its sheath. A small river of blood drooled towards the nearest sandy area, where it created tiny red mud bubbles and disappeared underneath the earth.

Barret looked at them with complete and utter despair – a weak and helpless look that betrayed the killing that had just taken place. A preventative kill: sparing the members of the party from a sneak attack – a dagger in the spine; twist and loot. "This is the house," he sighed weakly, "The house where I signed my life away. Where that whore Scarlet brought talk of mako and prosperity to Corel. Didn't want none of ya to get involved."

"That's Cloud's line," Aeris said, "'It's too dangerous, you should turn back,' bla bla bla."

"Yeah, we're already involved in this," Tifa said from the doorway.

"Tifa?" Barret asked, "You're down here too?"

"We all are," Red XIII announced, entering from behind Tifa, "We saw you and hurried here. I heard the murders at the battle arena were done by a man with a gun-arm. Was that you?"

Barret looked over at all of them. He shook his head slowly, "There's another. Another man that got a gun grafted inta one of his arms. It was four years ago…"


	62. Barret's Recollection: Loss of Arms

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming  
**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Barret's Recollection: Loss of Arms**

_'The Corel reactor was finished, an me an' Dyne were payin a visit to it. It was all very exciting to me. The Corel chasm had been a death trap for miners like Dyne an my own self, an now, thanks to the mako reactor, Corel could prosper._

_The tour was uneventful. Shinra guides took us through several rooms where we observed the mako being sucked outta the ground through television monitors on the walls. I ran my fingers along the monitors, all ten of 'em. Dyne looked upon it with a certain doubt. After all, he'd been the only one who spoke out against mako reactors._

_These had been the coal mines, the walls made of rock an' wood. Now they was steel an' brass. The miners, who had once worn yellow hard-hats an' pitons, now was all wearin blue Shinra uniform an' moved around with clipboards. The world was a-changin, an it seemed to me that Dyne wanted to stay behind._

_When the tour ended, me an' Dyne walked the familiar tracks back towards Corel. Through the mountains we was walkin an' we was talkin. From around the bend, the Village Headman limped._

_"Barret!" he shouted, "Dyne!"_

_Running to his aid, I help him up onto his feet, "What happened?" asks me._

_"The village's being attacked! It's Shinra soldiers!"_

_"What?!" I asked in bewilderment. Why would Shinra attack Corel?! They jes' spent the last year buildin a mako reactor for us!_

_Running from where the Village Headman had limped, I saw Corel._

_It was blanketed in flame. Outta the great forest, smoke billowed an the fire spread further into the trees. Corel was being ravaged by fire!_

_"What the hell happened?!" I yelled. In rage, I could feel my hands curling into fists. Raising them into the air, I looked at my fists, real hard._

_I'd never been a fighter. I'd never harmed a soul in my whole life. My size was deceivin, but that was cause I was a coal miner since I was a kid. But right now, I felt as if I could destroy the world with my own fists. Myrna was in that fire. Eleanor an' Marlene were in that fire. Everyone I had ever cared about was in the fire. An' it was the Shinra's fault!_

_An' it was my own fault for bringing them here. For allowing their treachery to destroy everythin' I loved._

_An' then I collapsed. I jes didn't have the strength anymore._

_An' then Dyne walked up behind me. "Barret," Dyne said, "It's not over yet! Everyone's waiting! Let's go back to the village."_

_My eyes lightened slightly. There might be a chance, that they could've escaped. Or perhaps, the fire only looked this bad from this distance. Perhaps it was only the forest that was ablaze, an' not the town itself._

_Shots rang out behind us an' we look to see the Village Headman fall to his knees. The old man spat out blood an' fell onto the tracks as three Shinra MPs ran from the direction of the town. Me an' Dyne were no longer on the tracks, they was a few feet away, at the edge of yet another chasm in the Corel mountain region. The MPs began to fire at me an' Dyne, but their aim was horrible. Bullets bouncin' off of the ground by my feet! An' I jumped to avoid gettin' hit. Dyne, in the meanwhile, had found a passageway underneath the tracks that led away from the chasms edge._

_"C'mon, Barret!" Dyne shouted, "We gotta hurry!"_

_Oh those bullets was makin me tap dance somethin fierce, an' I was screamin an' shoutin "Krggh!"_

_Finally escaping the path of bullets, I ran underneath the tracks an' back out the other side. It wasn't long before the MPs could see us again, an' they began to fire. Bullets hit the rock walls all around us, spraying dirt onto our skins and makin us cough._

_"Kyaa haa haa!" Scarlet laughed her stupid laugh as she was walkin' out from behind a cliff. She walked up to the MPs, "you'll never hit them with aim like that!"_

_Grabbin' a gun from one of the MPs, Scarlet lined up her shot an' fired. The bullet hit Dyne in his leg, an' he stumbled towards the edge of the chasm._

_Acting quick, I grabbed a hold of Dyne's hand just as he fell. The weight from Dyne pulled me belly-first to the edge of the chasm. Dangling towards oblivion, Dyne held with all his might. My right hand clutched onto Dyne's left wrist, an' that was the only thing connecting Dyne to safety._

_"Dyne!" I shouted at my friend, "Hang on! Listen to me! You're comin' back to the village, hear?!"_

_"Yeah, I ain't lettin' go," Dyne said, that glimmer of doubt returning to his voice._

_"You're comin' back," I said, "Everyone's waitin' for ya. Eleanor, an' Marlene, They all waitin' on us."_

_A bullet bounced off of the side of the chasm, one of the MPs had fired._

_"Stop playin' around an' cover me!" Scarlet shouted. The MPs nodded behind their masks an' Scarlet took careful aim._

_Her bullets shredded the Cliffside. When they hit my arm, they continued to fire. Holding on with every inch of strength I had, I was screamin' in pain. I saw my own blood drip onto Dyne from both of our arms. I looked at my hand an' saw the white of the bone, as each bullet snapped a vein, which sprayed red liquid over the chasm wall._

_Finally, Scarlet fired the last bullet, which broke my bone clear off, sending Dyne falling towards the blackness of the chasm._

_I scrambled away an' hid behind a boulder. Scarlet shrugged me off as dead an' continued to hunt down those who lived in Corel._

_When I knew it was safe, I ran back to town, feeling weak from the blood loss. I held my right arm real tightly to not let more blood escape._

_When he arrived back in town, I found that Myrna and Eleanor was dead, Eleanor had been shot down on her porch, and my Myrna, she died as I was holdin her. She told me to protect Dyne's little baby, so I found little Marlene under the water tower, an' we ran as fast as we could outta town so as to not get shot._

_We travelled through the great forest, the forest that's only a desert now. It all burned down when the Shinra were done with it._

_We got to Gongaga, which was a remote town at the south end of the great forest. The reactor there had exploded, an' as it turns out, Shinra had blamed terrorists from Corel on it. The only problem was, there were no terrorists in Corel._

_Not yet._

_The doctor at Gongaga gave me an artificial arm, made outta metal. I used it for a few months, raisin Marlene proper-like in Gongaga. But my depression grew, an' the rage was bubblin' inside me like a kettle left on for days._

_Then Chiara came, y'all met her in Kalm. She invented the PHS, but she was also the lady who suggested that I get a gun grafted in, 'stead of my artificial arm. It was at that point, that I threw away my artificial arm an' got a gun-arm instead. To take revenge on Shinra, who had taken everything away from me._

_The doctor performed the operation, an' seemed to be enjoying it a little too much. As if the entire idea was the doctor's sick joke. Chiara was there too, tellin' him how to do it._

_The doctor told me that he had just performed the same operation on another patient. However, with the other patient, it had been the left arm._

_I tried talking to Chiara about it, but she said she hadn't been there during the operation._

_I smiled an' hoped, just for a moment, that Dyne was still alive. Taking Marlene on my shoulder, I set out Northwest to the Valley of the Fallen Star, where I would meet Biggs an' Jessie. There, at Cosmo Canyon, we would form the rebel team AVALANCHE, an' begin our journey to Midgar.'_


	63. Book 3: A Gift for Marlene

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 8  
**

**A Gift for Marlene**

"From then on," Barret continued, "I couldn't use my right arm no more. I was depressed for a while. But then I threw away my artificial arm and got this gun grafted in. Got a new right arm to get revenge on the Shinra, who took everything away..."

They sat in the old house, with the body of the brigand on the floor. Each sat and listened to Barret's story.

"Back then, I heard the doc say there was another man who got the same operation as me. But, his was the left arm."

"But, Dyne's injury was the same as yours, right?" Aeris asked. Cloud didn't need to ask.

"Yeah," Tifa said, "that's right. He was deceived by the Shinra too. He'll probably join us to fight against them."

"...Wouldn't bet on it," Barret said. He sat in silence for a good long while, contemplating. "I gotta 'pologize to Dyne," he said, "before I can rest in peace. An that's why I gotta go alone."

"'Do whatever you want,'" Cloud mocked, "Is that what you want to hear? Well, I can't let you do it. We need your help to save the Planet."

"Yeah, well, you jes take care of yourself now," Barret said, and walked out of the door, leaving them alone in the old house.

Walking through Corel Prison, Barret paid no heed to the thieves eyeing him. He walked past old trucks, destroyed cars and buggies. Trudging slowly, he walked until the collections of criminals and vehicles grew thin. He found himself continuing to walk, as the base of the Gold Saucer became thin and faded.

He was far into the desert now, far away from Corel Prison. He walked until the sun tricked him into seeing water dancing on horizon – for it was so dry, there was nothing left to evaporate. A hot, dry desert – the only liquid for miles was the sweat on his body, and it was too salty to drink. It evaporated before it dripped.

There was a collection of metal debris ahead, followed by a large yawning gorge. The faint sound of gunfire echoed inside the gorge.

Lumbering as fast as he could towards the debris, Barret failed to notice that he was being trailed by Cloud Strife.

Walking through the piles of rubble, Barret arrived on an unsightly scene. Several white wooden crosses stuck out of the ground, they were graves all along the precipices edge. Standing over one cross was a man, wearing a white sleeveless shirt and thick black pants.

His left hand did not exist. Or rather, it did not exist anymore. Starting just past the elbow, his forearm seemed to be the victim of a doctor's sick joke; he had a large single-barreled gun grafted onto where his arm had been.

This was the boss of Corel Prison.

"Dyne," Barret asked calmly, "is that you?"

The man didn't turn around, instead, he looked up at the sky. "Now that's a voice I haven't heard in years," he said calmly, "a voice I'll never forget."

It was the same with Barret. Dyne's voice was slightly older, darker even. Dyne turned around and looked Barret square in the face. After a moment, he examined Barret's new gun-arm.

Dyne had a limp. It figured; Scarlet's bullets were hard to recover from.

"I always hoped I'd be able to see you again someday," Barret said, "I knew you were alive somewhere... we had the same operation. Listen, Dyne, I want to—"

"I can hear her voice," Dyne cut off Barret. He stopped limping and returned his gaze to the sky. Barret was awaiting an explanation. Dyne eventually gave it, "It's Eleanor's voice. Begging me... not to hate your rotten guts."

Barret was not surprised, but Cloud, who had been hiding behind a destroyed car, was.

"That's why I never hunted you down," Dyne continued.

"I know I was stupid. I'm not asking you to forgive me," Barret said with much melancholy. His face picked up again and he asked Dyne, "But...what're you doin' in a place like this? Why ya wanna kill people who ain't even involved? Why?"

"'Why?!'" Dyne snapped, "The hell do you care?!"

Turning and limping once more amongst the graves, Dyne said, "You think the dead understand 'why's? Is hearin' Shinra's excuses gonna make people in Corel understand anything? I don't care about reasons! All they give us is artillery and stupid excuses... What's left is a world of despair and emptiness."

Barret had no response, for he agreed so far. This did not seem a valid excuse for murder. Dyne had noticed his silence and leaned on a grave, resting his gun-arm and his right hand on the cross.

"You still want to hear 'why', Barret?" he asked. His face twitched and a bullet came exploding out of his single chambered gun-arm, breaking off the top of the cross and sending it careening towards Barret. It hit the ground a few metres away.

"'Cause I want to destroy everything," Dyne said in all seriousness. Pointing his gun at another cross, he fired as he said, "the people in this city."

The next cross exploded in splinters that bounced harmlessly off of the rocky ground.

"The city itself," Dyne said, and turned the gun right around to shoot the cross next to him. The arm of the cross was hit and now hung by a sliver off the rest of the white painted wood.

"The whole world!" Dyne said, and fired into the ground, his voice suddenly changing from anger to despair, "I got nothing left in this world, Barret! Corel, Eleanor, Marlene! They're all dead!"

"Dyne," Barret said, "Marlene's still alive."

Dyne stopped and looked Barret in the eyes. He was searching for a lie. Barret continued.

"When I went back into town, I thought she was gone for sure. I wandered around town for a while. And that's when I found her. Found Marlene."

Dyne still searched Barret's eyes, ignoring the fact that in all their years as friends, he could not recall ever hearing Barret lie. And yet, somehow he still needed to check.

"She's in Midgar. Let's go see her together, all right?"

After a long silence, Dyne broke his gaze and returned it to the sky. Barret had not been lying, after all. "So," he uttered, "she's still alive."

Quickly making up his mind, he turned to his old friend, "All right Barret," he said, "I guess this means you and I gotta fight."

"What?!" Barret shouted.

"Eleanor's all by herself. I gotta take Marlene to her."

"Dyne! Are you crazy?!" Barret shouted.

"Marlene wants to see her mom, don't she?" Dyne asked, and raised his gun-arm towards Barret. There was no hesitation before Dyne fired.

The blood hardened inside of his gun and fired a single bullet towards Barret, hitting him in the shoulder. Barret's skin was tough, but Dyne's bullet pierced. Barret did not feel enough pain to cry out. He stood his ground.

"Stop, Dyne!" he said, moving his left hand to shield his face," I can't die yet!"

Dyne continued to fire. The bullets did not go deep.

"Oh yeah? Well my life's been over ever since then!" Dyne shouted, limping closer and continuing to fire. Between every shot there was a moment of reloading. Barret realized that Dyne's bullets, while not numerous like Barret's, were made of much more tissue, making his shot much more powerful.

"Stop it! I don't wanna fight you!"

At that moment, something happened Barret did not expect. From behind him, someone ran towards Dyne. From their back they drew a great white sword.

"Cloud!" Barret shouted, "You stay the hell out of this! This is my problem!"

Dyne moved his gun-arm to face Cloud. Before Cloud could block his chest, the blast hit him and he flew back, the sword sliding away from him. He was down and not moving.

Barret grunted and tried to lift his arm. The pain hit him as the bullet remained in his shoulder. Wincing, he relaxed his arm and lifted it up with his left. He felt the bullet move under his flesh as he raised his gun to aim at Dyne.

He began to fire.

Under normal circumstances, the process used to refine blood into bullets is not a painful one, it can merely tire one out from using it excessively. However, in Barret's current situation, with a few holes inside him, each shot caused excruciating pain in all of his wounded areas, drawing the blood back in from the holes and preventing any scabbing.

Bullets thudded into Dyne's arm, which he had raised to shield his face. Popping through his skin and into his bones, Dyne screamed with rage. He shut his eyes and the small green orb attached to his gun began to glow.

Barret did not have a chance to adjust to this revelation. Dyne used his materia to conjure a great ball of fire, that swelled at the tip of his gun's barrel. When it was big enough, he fired a single bullet, sending the ball of fire racing towards Barret.

When it hit him in the chest, Barret was thrown back from the explosion and knocked onto his back. A rock poked into his back shedding blood onto the ground. Barret fired from his position on the ground, his bullets rang true and hit Dyne in the chest.

Stumbling back, Dyne fell to one knee, clutching his chest. "Urgh," he groaned.

Standing up, Barret moved as quick as the pain would allow towards Dyne, but his old friend said "Back!"

Barret stopped and watched Dyne stand to his feet once more. Limping towards a nearby wall, he leaned against it, looking down and watching the blood escape his chest. "Nice one, Barret." He smiled madly, blood between his teeth, "But I've had worse scrapes than this. Namely, the time my arm was shot off and my old friend Barret dropped me down a long chasm and I landed on my bullet ridden leg, breaking it in half. Oh yeah," he winced, squeezing his chest, "The doctors had a field day with that one."

They paused for a moment. Cloud had a few potions and a Phoenix down on him, which could cure Dyne's wounds and fix his limp if he joined them. Dyne saw the potions on Cloud's belt, and considered.

"I lost more than my arm back then," Dyne said, "I lost something irreplaceable. I don't know where it went wrong."

"Dyne," Barret said, taking a single step towards the wall, "I don't know either, man. Is this the only way we can resolve this?"

"I told you," Dyne coughed, "I want to destroy… everything. Everything, Barret. This crazy world. Even me."

"An what about Marlene?" Barret asked, "What's going to happen to her?"

"Think about it, Barret," Dyne said softly, "how old was she back then?"

They stopped and remembered. A time when their town was more than a rubble. The forest before it became a barren wasteland. Their wives. And the newborn Marlene.

"Even if I did go see her," Dyne said, "she wouldn't even know me. And what's more, Barret. My hands are too stained to carry her anymore."

Dyne reached up with his arm and grabbed something around his neck. It was a pendant on a chain. He tugged it lightly, breaking the chain and detaching it from around his neck. He looked at Barret to make sure he was paying attention, and then tossed the broken pendant towards him. Barret caught it with ease.

"Give that pendant to Marlene," he said, resting his head against the dilapidated wall, "It was Eleanor's. A memento."

"All right," Barret agreed.

Dropping his head to look levelly at Barret, he pushed himself off the wall and gained his balance.

"So Marlene's already four," he said wistfully. He began to limp towards the edge of the cliff. When he reached the cliff's edge, he didn't look down but turned back to Barret.

"Barret," he said, "don't you ever make her cry."

"Dyne?" Barret asked. But it was too late. Dyne had spread his arms and let himself fall gently off of the cliffs edge. Running to the edge, Barret leaned over. Dyne's mangled body lay at the bottom of the gorge, his eyes closed and a small smile upon his face.

With a ferocious cry of Dyne's name, Barret collapsed to his knees. "Me an' you were the same... My hands ain't any cleaner... I shouldn't carry Marlene either." He fixed the pendant and tied it around his neck. A gift for the girl - from her father.


	64. Book 3: Place Your Bets

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 9  
**

**Place Your Bets  
**

Cloud had been conscious, but the wound in his chest was deep. Barret found a potion on his belt and opened it, giving him a small dose.

"Thanks," Cloud said, "give yourself a little too."

Barret recalled Cloud's rage in Midgar, the last time Barret touched his items. He smiled and took a swig. His wounds felt better.

Helping Cloud to his feet, Barret and him began to walk back to the base of the Gold Saucer. After a few moments, Cloud began, "Barret—"

"I don't wanna talk about it," Barret said, "it was my thing an it's over now. But thanks for the concern, Cloud."

They continued to walk. Barret brought up a new subject.

"Cloud," Barret asked, "I remember you sayin' something about only members of SOLDIER using materia. But Aeris can use materia, and Red XIII can use materia. And Dyne can use materia."

"Aeris is an Anci—Aeris is a Cetra," he corrected himself, "Red XIII probably got the power after Hojo did experiments on him. As for Dyne and Tifa, I don't know."

"Wait a second, Tifa can use materia too?"

"I don't know how she can, and I don't think she does either."

"Hmm," Barret said, as they arrived. The old house was not far away and they entered together. It was almost 3pm.

Aeris sat on the couch, ready to heal any wounds they had taken. She saw that they had both had drank healing liquid, and sat down, almost disappointed.

The body of the brigand had been disposed off. Tifa and Red XIII had dragged it outside and thrown it behind the house.

"Welcome back," Aeris said, "I take it Dyne doesn't want to help us."

"Dyne's dead," Cloud said, "he took his own life."

Aeris thought for a moment, and Cloud turned to Barret. He did not use as much tact in relaying the information as Barret would like, but it was fine for a close friend like Aeris.

Mr. Coates looked up from his desk. His face was no longer silhouetted in front of the sun, for now it shone on him. "You want something?" he asked the group of seven who had entered his trailer.

"We want to go up. All of us."

"Like I told you before, you gotta get the boss's permission, then win the Chocobo—"

"Dyne's got his reasons and can't speak," Barret interrupted, stepping forward, "so I got this instead."

Lifting his head, Barret revealed the pendant around his neck.

"Yeah, bullshit," Mr. Coates said. But looking at it, he recognized it immediately.

"We want to go up," Barret commanded.

"R, right," said Mr. Coates, losing face. He leaned back in his chair, "did you kill Dyne?" then, after no response, "you must have, or you'd never be wearing that thing."

Pivoting his chair to face the window, Mr. Coates flipped up the blinds to look over the prison town, "So Dyne's dead," he said, "Maybe now, the place'll calm down a little. Dyne didn't care who anyone was."

Barret walked around the desk and grabbed Mr. Coates by the neck, spinning him around. The guards cocked their guns, but that didn't phase Barret. He brought his face right up to Mr. Coates and said very loudly, "The hell do you know?!"

Noting that his guards were obviously no threat, he gulped "Right! I don't know anything. Sorry."

"So are you going to get us outta here?" Cloud asked.

Coates turned to Cloud, "You guys are mistaken," he said, "there's only one way to get out of here. That's to win the Chocobo Race and that's held up there, in the Gold Saucer."

"Say what?!" Barret asked, letting his grip go.

"A rule is a rule, I can't change it!" Coates said, "If I do, the whole system down here'll get messed up!! An' I can't do that!"

After a moment, in an effort to appease the looming presence over him, Coates said, "I can do this for you. Normally, each of you would have to win the race. But since you got rid of the Boss, I can accept only one of you going up there. That one is going to have to deal with Dio for getting the rest of you out."

Cloud nodded and thought back. Just short of a week ago, they had rode Chocobos across the great marshes on the Eastern Continent. And it seemed that Cloud was the most adept at riding Chocobos.

"I'll go," Cloud said. Red XIII exhaled with relief.

"All right," Mr. Coates said, and tried to regain his high status by offering more, "and you're in luck. Usually, I make the prisoners find their own managers, but it just so happens I have one here right now. Ester!" he called.

Ester's primary job was a Chocobo Manager for the Gold Saucer. She also was a close friend of Dio's. What she was doing in Mr. Coates trailers neither of them would say, however the truth was that Ester was performing fellatio on Mr. Coates for extra gil for breeding Chocobos, as it is a very expensive hobby.

The first thing they noticed when she entered, was not her abnormal green dress or wacky pigtails. Rather, it was her nose, or lack thereof. If one knew of her prostitution, they would deduct that her small snout that made her fellatio very popular, and those whom she serviced often pondered whether or not she had it taken off just for that purpose.

"This is Ester," Mr. Coates said, "She may look kinda funny, but there's no better manager in the races."

"That's so rude!" Ester said and lightly smacked him across the face. Turning to Cloud she smiled and asked him his name.

"I'm Cloud," he said.

"Nice to meet you," she said, "Arthur can let us up the elevator, I'll fill you in on the details on the way up."

"Who's Arthur?" Cloud asked, and Ester pointed her thumb towards Mr. Coates. Cloud smirked as Mr. Coates curled in his chair.

To say that the elevator ride was long was a great understatement. After Ester gave a brief explanation on what to do in a race (which consisted of basically ride on the Chocobo through the track and come in first to win freedom), Cloud had time to explain their entire predicament before they were halfway up.

"Hmm," Ester said, "so that's what happened."

She seemed to ignore the part about Sephiroth and their crew, concentrating on the mistake at the Battle Arena, "I'll talk to Dio directly," she said, "You just concentrate on the race. Oh yeah, getting back to that, there are many different types of Chocobo jockeys. It's not only for criminals. Some people compete for the fame, some people compete for the money, some only for glory... And then there're people like you."

"How many criminals compete?"

"It's a rarity," Ester said, "not many get permission from the boss. But I guess since he's dead now, there will be a lot more."

"How long has Dyne been the boss of Corel Prison?"

"About three years, since it was big enough to be called a prison. The Gold Saucer went up almost as soon as Corel burned down. Seems a bit convenient if you ask me. I'm not a fan of Shinra either. Word is that they burned down Corel and the forest around it without any real excuse, just to make the Gold Saucer. Dio bought it from them though, really stuck it to them! I think Shinra's been wary of Dio since."

"Does the Gold Saucer run on mako?"

"Everything does nowadays," Ester said, "the reactors are small and on the underbelly of each square."

Cloud thought about Dyne again, what he had witnessed, "why would Dyne, after three years living in Corel Prison, suddenly wreak havoc above? How did he get there, or back?"

"Arthur lets him use the elevator, since he's the boss here. He's gone up once or twice… sorry, I keep talking about him in present tense. He's dead now I guess. He's ancient history."

Ester continued for a long time. By the end of the elevator ride, Cloud had gotten used to her alarming facial abnormalities. The elevator opened into the chocobo jockey's lounge.

Joe was there to greet them. He wore a red shirt and a black rimmed hat.

"Are you new?" he asked Cloud.

"Hi, Joe," Ester said happily.

"Hey, Ester. You're looking pretty as usual." Cloud wasn't sure whether Joe was lying or if there was a hidden beauty to Ester. Even now at the end of the long elevator ride, seeing people with noses was jarring. It occurred to him that Ester's obvious birth defect (most likely due to the Planet's failing ability to produce healthy babies) was perfectly suited for her. She wore her empty face to the fullest extent.

"Thanks," Ester said, "let me introduce Cloud. This is Joe, my top Jockey."

"I think I've heard of you," Cloud said as they shook hands, "how's your leg?"

Choco Joe had broken his leg in a racing accident last week, it had been all over the news, even Cloud had heard about it amongst the chaos of his week.

"It's healing well, thanks to the doctors here. Actually the next race is the one I'll be in," he smiled. Cloud felt disheartened. Joe looked at Ester, "is he yours?"

"Right!" Ester chirped, "he's an up-and-coming jockey. He'd only been down there a day and already he made it up here!!

"What?" Joe asked, and then it dawned on him that Cloud was from Corel Prison, "Oh I see. Well, let the past be the past, then, eh?"

Cloud thought, _'if only life were that simple.'_

"Well, good luck in the race," Joe said, "I'd say 'break a leg' but I've broken enough for the both of us, eh?" he laughed. Cloud smiled.

Joe turned to leave and Ester said quickly, "I'm going to check on the chocobo."

She ran through the lounge and past a table where several jockeys were playing cards. Joe was among them.

"What were you down there for? If you don't mind my asking," Joe said as he picked up his cards.

"I was wrongfully accused of mass murder." _'So much for letting the past be the past.'_

"Murder, eh?" Joe smirked.

"Yeah. Did you catch the part about me not doing that?"

"So… you're not a cheater! Come play some cards. We've got time for a game a Sahuagin's High before the race starts."

A jockey threw a red orb on the table, "I'm out of money, I'm putting in the Ramuh materia."

"Fuck, man! That things worth a fortune!"

"Sure it is. Are you in or out?"

"I'm in," Joe smiled, throwing some gil on the table, "You know they're planning on making a Teioh card."

"Sure Joe, I'll bet," one of the jockeys laughed, "Your chocobo will be immortalized in card form and you'll be dead and gone. Just play the fuckin' game."

Cloud tried to think back to the schoolground, when losing your dragon card was the end of the world. The rules were muddy like the rest of his memories. He didn't have any cards on him, so he borrowed some from the group deck. A wolf card and a jumping hare card – some of the most ordinary creatures known to man. The goal of Sahuagin's High was to end up with the most powerful pair of cards before elimination by 'attack' from the deck. Cloud lost immediately. He watched Joe win everything. Joe smiled and picked up the red orb. "This should earn me a pretty penny."

"How much are you willing to sell it for?" Cloud asked.

"Planning some mass murder?"

"What makes you think I can use materia?"

Joe laughed, "Your eyes, buddy. They're glowing. Or did you forget?"

Cloud stopped for a moment. His… eyes glowed? Oh yes… that was right. He was in SOLDIER, after all. The mako exposure left its mark in glowing circlets around his pupils. Just like Sephiroth. How could he have forgotten such a permanent mark on him? It would be like forgetting a tattoo or a scar. Did he have a scar on him? Didn't he have a great big scar on his chest from the fight with Sephiroth? He hadn't seen himself in a mirror in so long… it was hard to remember.

"Funny thing, mirrors," he said, "you end up needing them, just to make sure you exist. Heh, I guess I haven't seen myself in so long I've forgotten what I look like."

A voice came from the speakers in the ceiling corners, "The race will start in a few moments. Will the jockeys for the next race please proceed to the paddock."

"I suppose we should let other people gamble, too," one of the jockeys laughed.

"Well I'll tell you what you don't look like," Joe smiled, "a criminal. Tell you what. You beat me in this chocobo race and your freedom isn't the only thing you'll win."

Cloud followed the jockeys from the table who had stood. The announcement repeated and Ester came through the double doors in front of him.

"Cloud," she said, "thanks for waiting. I registered you in this race. This is a Chocobo I prepared myself, He should do well. Dio and I will be watching. Best of luck. Do you remember how to ride a Chocobo?"

"Let's hope so," Cloud said.

* * *

The paddock was blindingly colourful. Six chocobos milled about before the gates – some eating out of great troths full of greens. Five of them were various combinations of tawny and yellow, gelded and saddled. Only one of them had feathers as black as night. It stood patiently still like an ebony carving of itself as Joe inspected it. This, no doubt, was Teioh.

The jockeys – now suited in helmets and cheesy chromatic suits (like astronauts going to war) – mounted their chocobos and queued them at the gate underneath a grand archway that was made to look like the wide open mouth of a mog.

The chocobo Cloud approached had no specified name. It seemed more docile than the other yellow rabble, quietly looking back at Cloud with rheumy eyes. The bird had the same dour expression as the con: almost human but not quite there.

The buster sword was laid to rest against the side of the wall and already Cloud could feel a camera on him. They were making a story out of this he was sure. He turned to see a small hovering robot focusing its great clear eye on him, zooming in on his face so that audiences could see the criminal who raced for his freedom.

He gave a cocky smirk to the camera and grabbed hold of the harness of the chocobo. He was grateful for the prior experience in the Grasslands, when he had rode with the rest of the party over the dangerous swamps of the Eastern Continent. The chocobo gave an irritated warble, shaking its head before getting comfortable with the new rider. Cloud lightly tapped the side of the bird with his heel and the chocobo resonded by moving up to the last gate.

The sound of fiddles grew louder. The chocobo race band was stationed in a small pit to the right of the track, just before the fan stands.

There was a blaring narration over speakers around the stands. The racers couldn't make out what was being said, but the audience listened, half-cheering. Some were too busy buying food from vendors who trapsed down the aisles with microwaved zemzelett tubesteaks and leathery razor weed jerky. Cloud had barely enough time to take it in before the music began to crescendo and the gates vibrated with anticipation.

A loud ringing noise was heard and the gates opened. The race was afoot. Cloud had a difficult time adjusting to the saddle, but he let it go as the chocobo ran along the track, not seeming to pay any attention to him. The chocobo had done this before, and Cloud seemed only along for the ride.

The track was not made of dirt. Instead, it seemed made of shiny marble surface, multi-coloured, as most things in the Gold Saucer were. The stands were filled with people cheering and waving at the birds as they raced along.

After the stands were behind them, the track opened up to reveal an array of colourful items. These, Cloud assumed, were to distract untrained jockeys. Spinning statues of moogles lined the edge of the track as the Chocobos ran by. Each of the moogle's red bonbons had cameras inside, and when Cloud looked up he could see the giant screen, cutting frequently to different angles of the chocobo in first place – Teioh, obviously.

Great chequered walls, in delicate shades of blue and pink, came in to turn the track into a large corridor. The track spiraled upward, and the walls drew the track thinner. He found himself single file with all the other chocobos. He took the moment to look back. There were two behind him. This was good news so far.

The corridor widened and the track turned from the marble to wood logs. _'Oh great,'_ Cloud thought, _'the track is as ridiculous as the rest of the park.'_ The clicking of the chocobos claws on the marble turned into a constant thudding as the chocobos raced closely.

Crossing over a large wood bridge, Cloud refused to look at the great yellow plastic sphere with sunglasses that was supposed to resemble the sun. Instead, he concentrated on the waterfall ahead of him, where Joe had just run right through. As he neared it, he gave his chocobo a slight kick and it bolted through the water, barely getting them wet.

The water that they had taken on, however, slowed them down a bit as they ran through a food-themed area of the track. The walls appeared to be the inside of an enormous black forest cake, the ground was bouncy and made to look like marshmallows.

The other jockeys had gotten their chocobos more wet than Cloud, and he eased up to third place. At this point, he began to get some confidence. Kicking his chocobo twice, he cried out "Ya!" and the chocobo began to sprint towards second place.

From third place, Cloud could see Teioh's gorgeous black tailfeathers. Cloud wondered how Joe could have gotten such a rare beast, for the only chocobos he had ever seen had been as yellow as…_'well, as my hair.'_

As Cloud passed the second place chocobo, the bird snapped at him. The jockey, surprised at his bird's out-lash, pulled back on the reins and caused the chocobo to fall back to sixth place.

The track left Chocobo Square and ran around the outside of the Gold Saucer. The plastic sun was far behind them, and the real sun was below the billows now. Cloud could see the stars. There was a small railing protecting the chocobos from running off the edge of the track and down towards certain doom.

Kicking the chocobo again and again, Cloud neared Teioh's tailfeathers. Joe looked back and was almost surprised that Cloud was hot on his tail. 

After examining the scene for some time, Joe's black chocobo began to slow down. Cloud rode right up beside it and the two birds were running head to head. They continued on like this until the track turned and went back into Chocobo Square. Great plastic satellites flew by as the track was now space-themed. Joe's Black Chocobo slowed down a little, letting Cloud get ahead.

"You're doing this on purpose!" Cloud shouted to Joe.

"My leg still hurts," Joe said, "I'll take a close second!"

Cloud pulled ahead by a beak just as they crossed the finish line. Fanfare music trumpeted from all around him, and the crowd clapped. There was no cheering, as everyone there had lost their bet. He exhaled slowly. He felt no shame for his false win. If anything, he was grateful to Joe for setting him and his friends free.


	65. Book 3: Turks as Opponents

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Turks as Opponents**

Returning to the paddock, Cloud grabbed his sword - right where he had left it. Clipping it to his back, he nodded to his chocobo and returned to the lounge.

Joe was there.

"This one was on me," Joe said, "But only if you promise to come back. I want to race a free man."

"I promise," Cloud said.

"And when you return," Joe held up the red orb, "You'd better bring some more stuff to wager on."

Cloud took the orb and turned to Ester, who was waiting for him as well.

"Congratulations!" she said, and moved to him, "now you're home free!"

"You spoke with Dio?" he asked.

"Yes I did. He told me to give you this letter if you won."

Holding out a small piece of paper, Ester smiled at him. Cloud smiled back at the woman with no nose and took the paper.

_Boy,_

_If you're reading this letter, then you must have won. And won a victory that I am sure you earned. I heard about Dyne from Ester – I was wrong to accuse you, and I'm sorry. Now that you are victorious, I promise that you and all your friends will get a full pardon, and you will all be set free. And also, by way of apology, I prepared a little gift for you to use on your journey. Sorry I couldn't be there to tell you this in person, but I'm a very busy man._

_Sincerely, Dio_

"A gift?" Cloud asked. It was then that his PHS beeped. He picked it up and held it to his ear, "hello?"

"Cloud!" chirped Aeris' voice over the small speaker, "The assistant manager just stopped by and dropped off a buggy! We can cross the desert, no problem. We're waiting for you at the bottom of the elevator."

"All right, I'll be down as soon as I can."

Flipping over the letter, Cloud saw that it continued:

_P.S. Our cameras revealed a man matching your description. He entered the park, and went to my showroom in Battle Square. It is where I keep rare artifacts. He looked around, and left the way he came in. No one spoke with him. Hope this helps._

"Sephiroth…" Cloud whispered while reading it. Looking for… artifacts?

"I suppose you know where you're going now," Ester said, "the buggy should take you across shallow rivers easily enough. I guess this is goodbye. Well, if you ever get your own chocobo, come back again. I'll take care of your registration and everything. I'll see you again, Cloud!"

Ester walked over to Joe, who stood against the far wall. The two jockeys looked at each other. Joe nodded and smiled. Cloud walked into the lift and began his descent.

The lift doors opened and Cloud looked upon Dio's present. It was a six-wheeled armoured transport, but not painted camouflage like the ones he had travelled in during his time with SOLDIER.

"Of course," he laughed, looking upon the bright red buggy. Such an obnoxious vehicle could belong to no one else but the eccentric Dio.

The butterfly doors opened and Tifa walked out to meet him, standing on the ramp as it extended down to the dirt. When she arrived, sand blew about her feet. "Are we all set?"

"You're driving," he smiled. Tifa had proven her worth as a driver during a highway chase a few days previous.

His comrades sat comfortably inside in plush crimson chairs. There were ten chairs in total – including one for the driver. Yuffie reclined in the back, fiddling with a tuft of her black hair. Aeris and Cait Sith sat beside each other, buckled up tightly. The buckle looked ridiculous over Cait Sith, who was barely twice it's size. Red XIII lay comfortably on the floor beside Mog who was still and lifeless. Barret rode "shotgun." Cloud grabbed a seat between Aeris and Yuffie.

"Oh great," Yuffie yawned, "I get to sit beside boring old Cloud." Her expression changed when she saw the red orb clutched in his glove.

"Aeris," he asked, "What can you tell me about Ramuh?"

With a great revving of the engine, the buggy rode through Corel desert. The party was no longer travelling the world by foot, and this was a comforting thought. Gongaga was a five days walk from Corel, but with the buggy, they could be there by tomorrow afternoon.

"I don't know much," Aeris said, "I don't have any formal training in materia its history. You're talking about that summon creature, right?"

"The red materia perplexes you," Red XIII said, "Why is that so?"

Cloud rolled the ball around in his hands, "I understand the practicality of the spell – these summon creatures are a lot more powerful than regular spells. But the first time I tried to summon Shiva, it… she rejected me. How can something live inside materia? I thought it was crystallized mako."

"In Wutai," Yuffie offered, "we believe that materia is more a communication device to a higher power – like a PHS. The different colours are symbolic as to what kind of power you are praying for."

"Prayer…" Aeris pondered.

"Yeah, green materia rarely fails because it's simple, right? I mean, you can make fire or ice by yourself, so it's easily granted to you. But red materia is different – it allows you council with the gods."

"Don't believe in God," Barret huffed.

"Believe what you want," Yuffie shrugged, "I know I saw Shiva in that cargo boat, and I know Cloud talked to her."

A single poplar bluff was all that was left of Corel forest. It sat, decorticated in the middle of endless sand – the burning and drying of the once lush Corel kingdom.

"When my homecoming arrives," Red XIII announced, "and when I leave you, then we can talk about this more."

They drove, and Aeris fell asleep leaning on Cloud shoulder. Cloud rested his head on hers and fell asleep as well. Soon they were all asleep save Tifa, who continued to drive until she was too tired to watch the desert anymore and parked for the night.

They had left the desert by the time Cloud awoke. They were driving along grassy fields, the badlands of Corel long behind them.

"We're coming up on the river," Tifa said. Looking around, Cloud found that everyone else was already awake. There was a small monthly calendar behind Tifa's chair. It was Tuesday the sixteenth, they had been chasing Sephiroth for over a week now, and it had been over two since the bombing of the Midgar reactors. He sat back in his chair and looked at Aeris, whose eyes were fixed on the passing scenery. He hadn't known her that long, but he felt as if he had never been this close to anyone, not even Tifa. She had a brilliant light inside of her that sucked him in, and he dwelt in it happily.

His thoughts were interrupted when the armoured buggy splashed into the Crystal River. The river split the continent in two - but between the old realms of Corel and Gongaga it was shallow. The buggy's great wheels scraped against stones at the rivers bottom. It moved slowly through the water, but soon they were driving up the slope and out of it. Tifa considered checking the buggy for damages, but she figured it could wait until they reached Gongaga.

When they neared the town, they did not see it. Instead, they saw a large patch of forest surrounding the ruins of a destroyed reactor.

"That's it," Barret said, "Gongaga is in that forest."

"We can't drive through it," Tifa replied, "it's too thick. I'm going to have to park outside of the brush and we can walk through."

"Aw shit," Barret said, "better get prepared for fighting. In this forest, there are toxic frogs that'll turn you into frogs, and great gagighandis that'll turn you to stone!"

"Don't be so superstitious," Cloud said, but equipped himself in any case. The door opened and they exited. The door closed behind them and Tifa had the key.

"I'm not bein' superstitious, Cloud! Aw, hell. _I'm_ the one who's walked through this damn forest! I should know better than any of you!"

They began their walk into the forest.

* * *

"Toxic frogs," Rude said matter-of-factly. They had stumbled upon a nest of small, jelly-like eggs.

"Why aren't they in water?" Reno asked.

Rude said nothing, simply looking down at the gelatinous little marbles. Perhaps he was waiting for Reno to stumble upon the answer himself. Reno eventually sighed. "Because they're Toxic, which means they're muties. Every animal we've seen has been a mutie."

"Not humans."

"Human are just mutie monkeys," Reno laughed, "Except hotter. Well, not all of us can be as smokin' as us, but as a race we're pretty good looking."

Rude grunted in agreement. They continued along the path that wound through the Gongagan forests. A huge tree had grouwn sideways out of the ground and Rude ducked beneath it to continue. Reno stood atop it and walked along it for a while.

"So who's it gonna be?" he asked as he tiptoed along the tree's length, "Which mutie monkey tickles your fancy, Rude?"

Either Rude did not understand the question or he refused to answer. It was often hard to tell with him, as he rarely spoke. However, at this moment, Rude began to flush and turned away from Reno, facing the forest.

"What are you getting so embarrassed about?" Reno asked, "Come on, who do you like?"

Rude took his time answering. When he did, he only said a name, "…Tifa."

"Ooh!" Reno said, "that's a tough one. But poor Elena, she and you—"

"No," Rude replied, "she likes Tseng."

"I never knew that!" Reno said, "but Tseng likes that Ancient…"

Rude put up his hand and Reno was silenced – there was a rustling coming towards them. Elena ran out of the bushes.

"They're here!" she cried, "They're really here!"

"Who? Cloud?" Reno asked.

Elena ran down the path to the reactor, shouting "I'll alert Tseng, you take care of them!"

Reno turned to Rude, "They're actually where we thought they would be. This wasn't a waste of time after all."

Coming out of the bushes onto the path was Cloud Strife, who seemed surprised to see them. That was a good thing – it meant they had the upper hand already. Reno's spirits dampened a bit when he noticed six more figures in the bushes behind him. They had surprise on their side, but they were outnumbered three to one.

But hey, they were _Turks_.

"Yo," Reno called to Rude, flicking his new electro-magnetic rod open. "Rude, don't go easy on them just because they're girls."

Rude looked at Tifa through his sunglasses and replied coldly, "I'll do my job." He cracked his knuckles.

"Payback time for Sector 7," Reno said.

Cloud drew his sword and ran towards Reno. Reno swung at Cloud, but he was too quick. Cloud brought the sword around and broadsided him in the head. Reno stumbled back.

"Ow!" he shouted. Reaching up, he noticed his face was bleeding. "That hurt!"

A stone on Rude's belt glowed, and a green fog wrapped itself around Reno, as small embers surrounded his face. Rude was casting a healing spell on him.

"Everyone can use magic but me!" Barret whined obnoxiously and fired upon Rude, who took the bullets in his chest. He healed himself but breathed heavily. All the magic use was wearing him out.

Tifa ran up to Rude and they began a fist fight. The two seemed equally matched. Rude blocked one of Tifa's hits and grabbed her wrist. Using her arm, he pulled her down with such force that he picked himself right up off the ground to come swinging around her, and sat on the back of her head as she plummeted to the ground. Her leg swung up from behind her and gave him a spiked kick in the face, cracking the lens in his sunglasses. Rude flipped backwards off of her and healed himself quickly again - he seemed to be more upset at the sunglasses than at his injury. He tossed his broken glasses asunder just in time to be tackled by Red XIII, who sent him rolling along the dirt.

Reno was having a hard time dodging Cloud's swings, and several parts of his suit were torn from where the sword had barely missed his skin. He was being cut up rather badly, and Rude was too occupied with Red XIII to heal him.

Backing away from Cloud, Reno readied his weapon, when a shuriken flew right past Cloud's ear and stuck itself right in Reno's shoulder. He screamed and pulled it out, blood squirting from the hole. He dropped it and shouted, "Rude! Help me!"

Rude was wrestling with the beast and barely had the energy to close Reno's wound before Red XIII took a great chomp on his leg.

Yuffie jumped over Cloud and landed on the ground, snatching up her Shuriken before leaping once more to land on Reno's chest. The two Turks were on the ground, but they stood up and Rude cured their wounds once again. Aeris was tending to Tifa's few wounds.

"Well then," Reno tapped his head with a single finger, "looks like we're at an impass. Shall we continue until your healer wears out or should you just surrender now?"

"Surrender?" Cloud laughed, "I've been dying to try out this new toy of mine."

He focused his energy on the red stone in his sword. He clipped the sword to his back, ethereally aware of where the stone was. It had opened itself up to him, and he felt his soul enter.

He was floating once again in ether, in his protected, smoke screened world. He could see the Turks looking around to see where he had vanished to. The answer was nowhere. Tifa took the opportunity to continue her brawl with Rude. He did not seem willing enough to kill her. Such things were trivial now, as he felt a presence. An apparition appeared, of a sagely old gentleman in long robes with a longer white beard. In his hands he held a great staff.

"**My name is Ramuh**," he said, "**I have often wondered whether I have power alone; it seems more likely that the staff I hold is the source of my power. It acts as a catalyst for lightning. I wield the power of judgement. I was blessed with a benign sense of justice. I oppose those who oppose the Planet. In this fight I find no one guilty.**"

'_That's not fair,'_ Cloud thought, _'The Turks are working for Shinra who is killing the Planet.'_

"**They work for money which is a human creation. They kill and kidnap which are crimes against humanity. However, I sense good in these humans. Should I choose to smite them, I in doing so might also harm the Planet. Why kill those with the potential to do good? No, Cloud Strife, wielder of my memory, you must decide whether they live or die. I cannot kill innocents**."

'_Innocents?'_

Suddenly he was back, his feet planted firmly on the ground.

"Rejected again?" Barret asked between rounds of firing.

"Don't start," Cloud shouted back, and wished he had kept his regular materia in his sword. Reno charged at him with his new weapon and Cloud tried to duck. The rod struck him in the head. This rod had twice the electricity power of Reno's last weapon, and it demobilized Cloud until long after he had fallen to the ground. He couldn't move, all of his muscles were tensed up and there was nothing he could do but feel incredible pain.

Aeris's full metal staff clocked Reno in the side of the head.

Yuffie had gotten behind Rude, who was distracted by Tifa's unrelenting attacks. With a deft swoop, Yuffie cut Rude's belt loose with her shuriken and leapt to safety with his healing materia in thrall.

Reno had regained himself, but saw that Yuffie was holding all of Rude's materia. He then burst into a sprint back into the woods, calling, "Hey, Elena! Wait up!"

Rude stood his ground, and all attacks ceased. Rude was helpless and he knew it. The party watched as he slowly fixed his tie, lifting his chin up as if to regain some dignity. He turned and silently began to walk away. After a few steps, his speed increased until he was in full sprint into the forest. Cloud spun his sword around his head a few times, and clipped it to his back dramatically.

"Victory," he whispered to himself.


	66. Book 3: Zack

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**Zack**

"They knew we were coming," Aeris said, "how could they have known we were coming here?"

"They followed us," Cloud concluded, "but there weren't any signs of it. Then that means that—"

"A spy?" Tifa asked, "No way!"

Cloud turned to the party, who was a little jittered still from the fight but seemingly okay. He looked over them all. "I don't even want to think that there is a spy." He trusted Tifa with his life. Barret and he had been in their fair share of squabbles, but Cloud knew whose side Barret was on – the episode in Corel Prison affirmed that. He trusted Red XIII, who seemed more eager than any of them to partake in battle. Cait Sith had only just joined the party. He even trusted Yuffie, because he knew what she seeked and it was not from Shinra. And Aeris, he trusted most of all, moreso than even Tifa.

"I trust everyone… there's no use thinking about it," he said, "it will only break us apart. Besides, the Turks aren't only after us – they have other assignments as well."

As if to answer Cloud's hope, the whir of helicopter blades was heard above the trees, and they craned their neck to see an obscured shape beyond the leaves. Yuffie was chasing after the shadow of the helicopter within seconds, and everyone followed.

They raced along the path the Turks had taken and reached a large clearing in the forest. It had been burned down – no – incinerated. In the center of the clearing lay the ruins of the Gongaga reactor. The helicopter was circling outside of the ruins – within earshot.

"Hide!" he shouted, and ducked behind a large piece of broken metal. He peered through a hole in the steel to see the helicopter land right inside the reactor. The door slid open and Tseng of the Turks leapt out onto the dirt. His long black hair was thrown about by the blades of the helicopter, and he extended his hand to let a frail looking woman in a red dress out onto the earth.

"That's Scarlet," Cloud explained to Cait Sith and Yuffie, who stood on either side of him, "She's the head of the Shinra Weapon Development."

The helicopter's engines shut down as Tseng and Scarlet moved around in the wreckage. "This is ground zero," Tseng explained to her. "Any materia produced in this reactor would be in this area."

"Unless they were expelled in the explosion," Scarlet walked closer to where the party was hiding and she began to peer at the wreckage. "They could be anywhere in this damn forest."

"That's unlikely," Tseng moved closer to them all, "materia is produced in chambers that are separate from the core of the reactor – the explosion wouldn't scatter its contents. At most it would just destroy the walls of the chamber – the materia would be relatively close together. It's most likely that the villagers took it in the last four years."

"Is that how long it's been since I've been to this continent?" She examined the rubble that Cloud was hiding behind – she was so close, he could see the scars on her chest from plastic surgery, and the sickly way her collarbone jutted out from her ropey skin.

"Don't wander too far," Tseng called, "I've received word that Cloud and AVALANCHE are in the jungle."

"I've never met Cloud," Scarlet hummed, "I've heard he's handsome."

"What?"

"Oh, come on, Tseng. Have a little fun. Is Cloud Strife handsome?"

Tseng stammered, "I suppose… in a farm boy kind of way. He's probably not your type."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Why do you ask?"

Scarlet backed away from the rubble and Cloud let out a small exhale of relief. She turned to Tseng, "Well, it's just the way that Ancient girl ran off after him with no delay."

"Yeah, well," Tseng knelt down and poked at something in the wreckage, "she has a thing for SOLDIERs. I think I've found something."

Scarlet walked into to him and he handed her a small green stone. "Hmph!" she said, "this one isn't any good either! You only get junky materia from junky reactors."

She tossed the stone back into the piles of scrap. Turning to Tseng, she said, "this reactor is a failure. What I'm looking for is big, large, _huge_ materia. You seen any?"

"No," Tseng said, "I haven't. But I'll get on it right away."

"Don't send your minions looking for it," Scarlet asked, "Keep this under wraps. The only people who know about this besides the two of us are Rufus and Armon."

"—you mean Heidegger—"

"—Heidegger. I only let you in on the know since you can fly a helicopter."

"Scarlet, with all due respect, the General Affairs Department—"

"—you mean the Turks—"

"—the _Turks,_ then, are the most informed, intelligent and capable human beings in Shinra Inc. We knew all of the details of this mission before you had even approached President Shinra with it. We have copies of the blueprints to your weapon." Tseng smiled, "And we know what you and Armon were up to in the spa on the sixty-fourth floor last week during Rufus's inauguration."

Scarlet screamed, but Tseng was already heading back into the helicopter. Scarlet got in as the engines fired up and it took off.

"Materia?" Yuffie smiled madly and when the helicopter was gone, she raced down towards the reactor.

When she arrived, she found a small collection of green stones behind a massive pile of warped metal. There were small footprints all around them, as if the materia stones were being used to build a nest of some sort.

"What did you find, Yuffie?" Aeris asked as she came around the bend.

Yuffie was examining the materia. "Scarlet was right, these are all junk. Nothing we don't already have."

"I've been meaning to ask you about your materia…"

"The yellow one? Pretty cool, huh? It's what I call 'enemy skill' materia. When someone casts a spell on me, if I concentrate I can 'teach' the materia that spell – which is pretty awesome if you've been in as many fights as I have. That fight on the boat, with that big monster. When she cast the spell and made us all slow – I absorbed that power and now I can use it whenever I want."

"Where did you find materia like that?"

"Wutai. There's not much materia there, not since the war. But the stuff we have is pretty awesome. We could use some 'huge materia' ourselves."

Cloud emerged from behind the rubble and asked out loud, "Big, large, huge materia? What is Shinra up to?"

Once again, he reminded himself that he could never fully understand all of Shinra's dealings, for they _did_ run the world. He was only concerned with one thing.

Gongaga overlooked the reactor, and it was only a small climb up a hill to reach it. They left the reactor without delay.

"I wonder what kind of creature would build a nest out of crystal orbs," Aeris wondered.

"Gagighandis!" Barret warned, "Take heed, y'all!"

Gongaga was a series of huts. A primitive town, but for a few years they had mako power. Unfortunately, the reactor was bombed and a lot of the town was blown away. Many innocents died and Gongaga was now mostly a graveyard, with less than a hundred huts and a few more than a hundred citizens.

Cloud turned to Red XIII, "No offense, Red. This looks like a backwater town, I don't know how accepting they would be of a talking beast. You should probably keep a low profile."

"A wise choice, Cloud," Red XIII smiled.

"We should all split up," Barret nodded, "I'm gonna say 'hi' to a few folks I know. They don't take too kindly to Wutaians."

"I'm cool, I'll just hang back with Red and Cait Sith."

The robotic cat jumped. "What? Why am I staying behind?"

"For our entertaining pleasure," Red XIII rolled his eyes.

"Yuffie's right, we don't want to attract too much attention, and you three stand out."

"Like the rest of you don't," Cait Sith mumbled.

"Barret is known in town," Cloud motioned to Barret, who had already made his way into the small hamlet. "They won't bother a SOLDIER."

"And your buxom escorts?"

"What's so strange looking about them? They look pretty normal to me." A little voice in Cloud's head admonished him for saying that, but even combined with the looks the girls gave him, he wasn't entirely sure how that could be considered an insult.

"Drop it, cat," Yuffie sighed, "There's nothing for us in this town. Cloud will be back in twenty minutes when he figures out that Sephiroth would never, _ever_ come here."

"Being thorough isn't a crime," Tifa shook her head, and followed Cloud and Aeris into town.

Walking into a hut, Cloud saw weapons leaning against the straw walls. He surveyed the arsenal, which was inadequate to his own. It was to be expected. The man behind the counter was looking at him with immediate and shocking disdain.

"Can I help you, _sir_?" It was the way he stressed the formality that made it unwelcoming. Cloud wasn't sure what he had done to bring on this sudden inhospitality. He shook his head and walked out of the tent.

"Well, that was weird," he said to the girls as they continued through the town. They were passing by a hut that had an old woman and a man sitting out front.

"Say there," said the old man, "stop you."

Cloud stopped, "Yes?" he asked.

"That uniform, are you in SOLDIER?" he asked. Cloud walked towards the old man. Was this to be another surly redneck? His hair was greying where it had once surely been jet black. His face was wrinkled but strangely familiar, like a distant relative.

"I was," Cloud said, "why do you ask?"

"Come inside! Quickly now!" the old man stood from his rocking chair and into the doorway of the hut. They followed. The hut was quaint, barely enough room to fit them all, it was mostly occupied by a large table. A modest kitchen stood by a window hole fashioned in the side of the bamboo walls.

"They don't take kindly to SOLDIERs here," said the old man.

"They don't seem to take too kindly to anyone here."

"Gongaga's been in bad shape the last five years."

"You're not alone. Nibelheim, Corel… I'm surprised this village is still standing."

"If the SOLDIERs had their way, it would be gone too. It seems that SOLDIER is more in the business of destroying cities than protecting them."

"Then why did you invite me inside?" Cloud asked.

"My son is in SOLDIER," said the old man.

Cloud raised his eyebrows, "I probably know him. What was his name?"

"Zack."

Zack?

'…_nope. Never heard of him.'_

He told them the truth, "No, sorry."

"It's been almost ten years since he left for the big city," Zack's father said mournfully. "He stopped writing about six years ago. I sometimes wonder if he was… indoctrinated. It's terrible to think that way."

Cloud wasn't sure how to respond. "Sometimes, people who join SOLDIER are already committed to the ideal of what Shinra Inc. is all about. It doesn't take any convincing. When I joined, I was already full of pride and hope – and I did good things, mostly. But when I… found out about the incidents in Nibelheim, I quit. I'm sure your son wasn't brainwashed in any way."

"The only other option I can imagine is…"

"Don't think like that. He probably quit after he heard what happened here. He might not be able to afford paper, but I'm sure he's fine." Cloud tried to smile. He turned to Aeris to find some more words of support – she was always much better at that. When he looked at her, he saw that her eyes were wet with approaching tears, and her hand was at her mouth. "Aeris? What's wrong?"

Aeris blinked back whatever was coming up. "Zack…"

"Young lady," asked Zack's mother, "do you know him? I remember he wrote to us six years ago, telling us he had a girlfriend. Could that have been you?"

Aeris stammered, quickly apologized and left in a hurry. She ran off and Cloud was left with Zack's parents and Tifa, who seemed as spooked as Aeris.

"Excuse me," Tifa said and turned to leave.

"Excuse us," said Cloud, and followed her.

"What's up with you two?" Cloud asked Tifa when they were far away from the hut. "Do you know him?"

Tifa turned suddenly towards Cloud, as if he had slapped her, wide eyed. "N—no! I don't know him!"

"Your face tells me differently," Cloud said.

"I told you, I don't!" Tifa pleaded. Cloud felt she was lying again, hiding something from him. He felt hurt a little, but realized that her life was her own.

"All right," he said.

"It… just… sounds a lot like you. Leaving town and saying 'I'm joining SOLDIER!'"

"There were a lot of guys like that back then," Cloud said.

"You must really be something," she said, looking into his eyes, "making it into SOLDIER out of a group like that. I really respect you."

"Well, I worked hard for it," Cloud said.

Tifa nodded. "Guess it paid off. Thanks for caring. I'm going to look for Barret, you'd better find Aeris. We should be leaving soon."

* * *

"Dr. Thorpe?" Barret entered the hospital, which was identical in size to any other hut in Gongaga. The doctor was in, sitting on the medical cot writing on a clipboard. He looked up.

"Is that Barret Wallace?" he asked, standing up, "Never thought I woulda seen your face round here again! How's that arm treating ya? Heh you know we always used to make jokes about you and that other fellow. How have you been the last three years? How's little Marlene?"

"She's fine. Look, doc, I don't got much time here. We're lookin' for Sephiroth, have you seen him?"

"Sephiroth? _The_ Sephiroth? No, hasn't been a SOLDIER around here since you had two hands."

"Anything around here interesting enough to attract his attention?"

"You know I don't leave Gongaga – too many bad monsters out there. But just so happens I have something that could help you. You remember Chiara Fawlher? The woman invented the gun-arm?"

"Yeah, I remember her."

"Well she done left here shortly after you, but before that she was doin' some alright map makin'. She left me this here beaut. It's yours if you want it."

Thorpe grabbed a rolled up map off the desk and handed it to Barret.

"Also, if you're thinkin' of going through those forests again, you'd better take a remedy with ya."

Thorpe stood and thumbed along a shelf, muttering the old rhyme:

"Green is for folks feeling under the weather

Red has the shine of a phoenix's feather

Purple will remedy petrification

Clear will rouse the lazy from sedation

What blue potion does, nobody knows

That's how the potion poem goes!"

"A purple potion to protect you from those gagighandis that you had trouble with four years ago. It won't just cure petrification, though. It'll cure all poisons – cause it's magic."

"Thanks, doc." Barret said, "There's something else. You'd better sit down. After me an' Marlene left, I met yer daughter, Jessie."

"Jessie? Oh holy moly! How is she? Tell me everything."

Barret sat beside Thorpe on the medical cot. "That's the thing. Jessie passed away not too long ago. Jes' thought you should know."

"Passed away? How?"

"The Shinra bombed a city in Midgar an', well, she was in it."

Thorpe was oddly quiet. Barret was expecting tears, but the doctor just sat there. "The Shinra almost killed her four years ago, but she escaped and I never seen her since. I guess she was just runnin' away from her destiny. Poor girl. Was she happy? Before the end?"

"She was exactly where she wanted t'be."

"That's good to know. Thank you Barret. You and your kin are always welcome here."

"Thanks, Stephane. I know you don't take to SOLDIERs, but I got an ex-SOLDIER on my crew. He don't work with Shinra, so I don't expect trouble. Jessie took a liking to him… before the end."

"A friend of my daughters can be the toast of Gongaga. She saved this here town the night she left. Did you know that?"

"No. She never mentioned it."

"That's Jessie. Always so humble, that girl… I should, uh, get back to work. It was nice seein' ya, Barret. Stop by anytime."

* * *

"Aeris," Cloud asked, "what happened?"

She was standing by a rock at the edge of town, thinking. He saw her shortly after he and Tifa separated and ran up to her.

"What a shock," Aeris said softly, "I didn't know he was from this town."

"You know him?"

"Didn't I tell you?" she asked, "he was my first love."

Love? She hadn't exactly mentioned her ex-boyfriend in that sense. He seemed to recall her saying how it was 'nothing serious' and how she 'liked him for a while.' Was that his memory playing tricks on him, or was today the day that his trust in everyone would be broken? The notion of a spy nagged at the back of his mind. He trusted Tifa with his life, but did he trust her to tell the truth? She seemed to have greater knowledge of the past but neglected to share it - Cloud wasn't even sure he could trust himself. And then there was Aeris, enigmatic, secretive, and there in the throes of love with another man, playing over and over in his mind. He couldn't help but envision this Zack person bedding her, the details of his body at once perfectly visualized and murky, blurry like the world through drunk goggles. Her face, though, crying out in pleasure and pain and the most profound of emotional experiences. It played through his head as vividly as what his eyes were looking at. Aeris was gauging his expression. Judging him. Contemplating what to say next, probably. Maybe to tell him that she still loved him? That they were married and had enough children to create a small army? That she had no feelings for Cloud?

"Oh," was all he could say.

"Zack Knightblade," she said, "SOLDIER, First Class. Same as Cloud Strife."

She turned and looked into his eyes. That feeling of being searched returned to him, as her eyes entered his. He felt as he did the moment they met, when her green eyes flowed gently through his and stared not at him, but into his soul. And he was pacified. How he detested the way she could disarm him with her eyes. Her gaze paralyzed him. Aeris had the power to do that, and Cloud wondered if all of the Cetra could do the same, or if Aeris was unique. If the latter were the case, then she was quite unique. After all, she had turned the heads of at least two First-Class SOLDIERs.

"First Class," he echoed, "there aren't many who make it to First Class. But I've never heard of him."

Aeris looked down at his chest, drifting off into memories, "That's all right," she said, "It's all in the past now. I was just worried because I heard he's been missing."

"Missing?"

"Yes. I think it was five or six years ago. He went out on a job and never came back. He loved women, a real ladies man. He probably found someone else."

Cloud picked up on a melancholy waver in her voice as she spoke of her first love with another. He felt the jealousy rising up in him again, and he shifted his feet.

"Are you jealous, Cloud?" Aeris teased. "Are you?"

Embarrassed, Cloud turned away.

"I'm just kidding," Aeris said, and grabbed his hand. She pulled him around to face her and smiled up at him. He let the jealousy pass and smiled back at her. It was all in the past now, and the past was already written. It couldn't be changed or altered, it simply was and he would have to live with it.

At least, that was what Cloud thought at the time. He would realize at the end of their journey how very wrong he was.


	67. Jessies Recollection: Demolitions Expert

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**Jessie's Recollection: Demolitions Expert**

_'January 6th, approximately 6:30pm. I'm dying. I know I'm dying, the man in the helicopter shot me, right in my stomach. Cloud, Barret and Tifa couldn't stop the bomb, but they could escape. They escaped without me. I wanted it that way, I'm a goner. The pillar is collapsing on top of me; the platform is shaking a fair bit. My life is flashing before my eyes._

_The night was full of stars. Tonight was the meteor shower, seven years before my death. The town council had just approved the building of the mako reactor. I stood on the hill overlooking the forest. The reactor would be built there. It would be more advanced than the ones in Midgar, and would provide Gongaga with our livelihood. No more importing coal from Corel._

_Zack walked up behind me, putting his hand on her shoulder._

_"Don't even talk to me," I pulled my shoulder away from him._

_"I'm sorry," Zack said, "but I can't stay here."_

_I turned to him, "And what about me? Are you going to find someone else?"_

_Zack looked up at the sky, "It's hard to say. There are a lot of temptations in the city. But I'll always remember you."_

_"You'd better," I said, smiling a little, "Oh Zack, I'm going to miss you so much!"_

_I was two years older than Zack, I was seventeen and he was fifteen, a man now and old enough to join SOLDIER – which was what he was setting out to do. I had fallen for him though, more than words could say. He was such a jerk sometimes, which made him endearing. Always so strong and fit, a perfect picture of a SOLDIER._

_"I love you," I said._

_"Then let's have tonight."_

_We made love that night, it was my first time. We strolled down into the forest and I lay on the soil, looking up at the falling stars. After we had finished, we lay there naked for hours, talking and laughing and saying our good-byes. When it became too cold we made love again, until I was too sore to continue, and then we blanketed ourselves in our clothes and let the soil warm us from behind. The sun came up and Zack left for Midgar._

_I got a few notes at first, explaining how he was in training for SOLDIER, and about his friends. The letters stopped after those few. I never knew what happened to him._

_The reactor was built over the spot where I had lost my virginity. Slowly but surely it began to kill the forests. Animals began to die, plants withered. People were getting sick._

_What really started this whole AVALANCHE thing was the children. The infant mortality rate had been climbing steadily. Before the reactor had been built, every child had been born healthy. Three years after the reactor was built, one in every three children was stillborn. It was the same with animals, farm animals dwindled down and down, and forest animals began to attack the villagers. Gagighandis, great pink hippos who had eaten all of the dosile wildlife, were hungry, starving, and would come into the village and attack. At first they only came in at night, and ate the small pets. Then, they began to eat the large pets. When villagers attacked them, they were turned to stone. It moved onto children, infants, really. Those who weren't stillborn still only had a fifty-fifty chance of surviving a year. And then they began to eat fully grown people, their desperation so large._

_And that was how Gongaga was to die? We were going to sit around with our electric power and let nature fight back until we're all dead? I wouldn't have it._

_Three years after the mako reactor was built, I had become quite the skilled bomb technician. I had been learning about the reactor's ways, and had finally contstructed a bomb perfect enough to save our town._

_The night was polluted, the smoke from the reactor blanketed the sky over Gongaga. I had not seen the stars in years. I, holding a backpack full of explosives, walked into the reactor. It was lightly guarded, everyone was at home, sleeping. Moving through the first few rooms, I pointed the gun at the third door before passing through it. There were three engineers in here, and they stood up and raised their hands._

_"Jessie, what the hell are you doing?" asked one._

_Gongaga was a small town. Everyone knew each other, and I was especially cherished. The three men were my age, we had taken classes together in the schoolhouse, back when there were enough children to fill a class. Three twenty year old men._

_"I'm saving Gongaga," I said, and shot them all. Oh god, I shot them all._

_Moving into the chamber room, I set up the bomb. I had designed it myself, stealing the blueprints from my father, who had helped build the reactor. There was a cord that regulated the heat inside the Mako pool below. If I switched the cord from the large valve below the control panel with the cord from her bomb, when it went off it would ignite the Mako, blowing the building up. The explosion, I thought, would be rather safe._

_I set the timer. Ten minutes ought to do it. I stood up and sprinted out of the reactor, throwing my backpack inside the Mako pool._

_I ran into the forest where the trees shielded the heat from the blast. A great pillar of fire rose from the reactor, and, as I predicted, only a few of the houses were destroyed._

_That is, until SOLDIER came to town a few days later._

_They came by the dozens and destroyed houses, killing townsfolk. I did not know why they were doing this. In the chaos, I saw Scarlet and ran towards her._

_"Miss!" I shouted, "why are you doing this? It's a miracle we survived the blast!"_

_"That was no malfunction," Scarlet said, "someone blew that reactor, and we are going to burn you to the ground unless we can get an answer."_

_The members of SOLDIER rounded up all of the townsfolk. Town square was dark this evening, but the sky was clearing the moonlight shone upon Scarlet, who brought forth a townsperson._

_"Now!" Scarlet said, "If anyone here can tell me who destroyed the reactor, we will deal the punishment to the guilty. If no one can tell me, I will assume that you are all guilty and you shall all perish!"_

_A member of SOLDIER walked up to the townsperson and with a few quick twitches of his arms, the man was severed by the blade, blood spilling all over the dust._

_Villagers screamed and panicked, but they were blocked in by a circle of SOLDIERs, killing all those who tried to escape._

_The next townsperson was brought beside Scarlet, and the next SOLDIER waited a moment for a confession, and then killed him._

_The trauma struck me hard. SOLDIER, the glamorous institution Zack had left for, was a killing machine. Had they no conscience? Had they no souls?_

_"I know who done it!" I shouted, but my voice was drowned out by the crowd. Running towards Scarlet, I fell to my knees._

_"I know who done it! Just don't kill any more people!"_

_Scarlet raised her hand and the member of SOLDIER sheathed his broadsword._

_"Well well," said Scarlet, "who was it?"_

_I paused for a moment. This was the moment of truth._

_"I seen 'em," I said, "they used to come here bringing coal! But they stopped once the reactor was built!"_

_Scarlet paused for a moment, "you mean people from Corel?"_

_"They headed north, yes!" I lied._

_Looking back, if I had confessed, they would have burned Gongaga down right after killing me. I was only looking out for my town! With a wave of Scarlet's hand, the SOLDIERs turned north and started to march. At that moment, I ran into the forest, wearing only what I had._

_I kept running until my legs collapsed and all I could do was lie there under the fading pollution. I slept in the woods, walking every day further away from Gongaga. Eventually, I would reach Cosmo Canyon, where I would meet a man named Biggs._

_I've come a long way since then. I've learned to speak the common tongue properly, I've made a new life here in Midgar, fighting the power. Even if I die, the resistance lives. I'll be a martyr, I guess, everyone will see Shinra's corruption with the my death, and the death of my new city.'_


	68. Book 3: Valley of the Fallen Star

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**Valley of the Fallen Star**

'_It's been ten days now since the Shinra snuffed AVALANCHE from the pages of the hist'ry books,'_ Barret thought solemnly as he entered the armoured buggy. They had made it back through the forest unscathed, in the last four years the wildlife had become somewhat docile, Barret assumed. _'The townsfolk seemed less on edge, too, now that Shinra's moved its eye onto other things. Like us.'_

He opened the map, knowing that Sephiroth had not been in Gongaga. Chiara had drawn the West Continent with incredible detail. Doctor Thorpe had added a rose shape in the middle of the Sandy Badlands and labelled it 'Gold Saucer.' There were a few small towns in the Gongaga area, but nothing that Sephiroth would have taken any interest in. As they revved the buggy to life, Cloud felt that he knew where Sephiroth was headed.

"He's going to the ruins of Nibelheim," he explained to the others as the door to the buggy closed.

"Why would he do that?" asked Barret, noting that Nibelheim was a few days drive north from Gongaga.

"It seems like the only town around here worth visiting. We head northwest, around the mountains."

Tifa got behind the wheel and drove. Night came quicker then they had anticipated. They had spent a long time in Gongaga, and Barret had bought potions to store in the vehicle.

Cloud fell asleep in his chair, and slept through the night. Tifa had switched off with Barret, who had a difficult time driving with one hand. He seemed to get the job done right and Tifa slept in a seat Aeris had saved for her.

Wednesday came and went in the buggy. As Barret crawled in beside Cloud, he leaned in and whispered, "Don't worry about the girls, y'hear? The full moon's here, its best jes' to you're your mouth shut an' let 'em be crazy for a few days." Barret slept through the day to the enjoyment of everyone, although Cloud pondered the significance of his advice. Women confused him. Idle chatter about the past set in. Red XIII and Yuffie were eerily calm about it. Cloud's story of Sephiroth's last order was known by heart to most of them. Aeris and Tifa, however, had their fair share of stories – some tragic, and some that made them laugh so hard that they awoke Barret who would growl and begin another bout of silence.

There was talk of the people they had met on their journey. Of Chiara Fawlher, Dio, the Allworth's at Fort Condor. Cloud wasn't surprised at Tifa's low opinion of Chocobo Bill, the racist rancher. He did not partake in the brief hurling of insults at him and his incestuous underage grand-spawn. Bill had given him some information that had led to a new profound understanding of the universe: the idea that they were not alone on the Planet.

They talked and Cait Sith listened intently, enjoying his company. He gave a few good stories of the Gold Saucer's guests – mostly stories of their intellectual ineptitude. His robotic voice was becoming more familiar and less annoying – almost to the chagrin of Cloud, who would still not admit to becoming quite fond of them all.

Barret took the wheel again on Wednesday night, and when they awoke the grass was long behind them. The sky that shone through the windows was red and dusty. They could hear the sounds of the six wheels below them driving over rocks.

After brief debate over Barret's directional prowess, they agreed that they had indeed entered the Valley of the Fallen Star – where it had been said that the sky was always a blood red, the colour of a falling star too close to the Planet.

"I've seen falling stars," Tifa said from behind the wheel as Barret slumped into his chair beside her, "They are beautiful."

"A falling star is a tiny piece of space rock," Red XIII explained, "When it enters our atmosphere, it burns up. The tail you see on the falling star is actually a streak of fire shooting across the sky."

"Not as romantic as a star falling from its place," Cait Sith shrugged.

"Sounds nearly as beautiful, though," Tifa sighed, "A space rock's swan song."

"Do you suppose that space rocks are pieces of other planets?" Cloud asked, "Floating towards us?"

"I haven't seen that far," Red XIII replied, "I've never looked into a telescope.

Cloud was about to ask what a telescope was, but Cait Sith started a new conversation about raining rocks. Aeris giggled and continued the conversation with him until Cloud simply looked out the window.

Throughout all their talk and banter, they never spoke of the future. No plans for the future. They avoided the topic, mostly because of the power they were up against. A small part of them, however, had nothing else beyond finding Sephiroth. From all walks of life to the buggy, it had nearly become their raison d'etre, to chase the black cloaked man. Anything after seemed trivial.

Tifa relented at night and Barret drove happily into the red sunset. Cloud felt sleep take him and he closed his eyes.

He dreamt of the past.

The sky was the same when he awoke, a dim red – either rising or still setting. The buggy was rocking violently.

"What the fuck?! What the fuck?!" Barret cried. Tifa sprang up and ran up to the driver's seat, where Barret clutched the wheel tightly – almost enough to snap it. His gun-arm waved wildly about in the air, and Tifa was careful not to get struck by it.

There was a large and sudden rocking as the buggy stopped. Yuffie, who had not been wearing her seatbelt, was pulled from the inertia to her feet and in the same fluid motion she flew through the air to hit Tifa's legs. Red XIII had slid across the floor and his head had hit the front of the car, causing him to let out an incredible "Yelp!"

Their discarded weapons skimmed across the floor and Cloud unbuckled himself, rising to his feet quickly. He grabbed his sword and clipped it to his back. Still half asleep, he was ready to face whatever had hit the truck. The door opened and he leapt outside.

He landed on solid rock, which jolted him fully awake and he looked at his surroundings. The ground was barren, but not withered like the dead, dry land around the reactors. These stones were full of life, beaming energy he could feel. There was nothing but rock for kilometres around, with small, abrupt rock ledges rising out of the ground like the walls of some strange natural fortress. The tint of the sky coloured the ground deep Bordeaux. The buggy was behind him and he looked at it as black and white smoke drooled upwards from beneath the hood. Nothing seemed to have caused it, no frightening humanoid creature stumbling towards him. No general at his side to save him. Barret came running out of the buggy. "I didn't do anything!" he cried in defence.

The rest followed. There was no monster here. In fact, there wasn't a living soul for kilometres. They were deep in the canyons between Gongaga and Nibelheim.

Barret grabbed the hood to find that it was piping hot. He screamed and pulled his hand away.

"Aeris!" he shouted, "mend this!"

Aeris walked up to him and healed his wound easily. It did not scar.

Cloud got his sword and pried open the hood. Smoke billowed from the engine for a while. After it had cooled, the engine looked fine, just overburned. "Barret," Cloud said, "how fast were we going?"

"Fast enough to give me a mighty whiplash," Yuffie moaned, massaging her neck. Tifa's leg was becoming bruised.

"Oh man," Cloud said, looking at their surroundings. There was nothing he could see, "A breakdown? Now?"

"Tifa'll get her goin again, right?" Barret asked.

"I'm no mechanic," Tifa said, "just a driver."

"There is a town near here," Red XIII said, "my hometown. I can set you up there for tonight and get some mechanics to fix the buggy."

"Then you're as good as gone, right?" Tifa asked solemnly.

"I told you I would accompany you until I got home. Home is where I will stay."

Cloud did not like those words. As they all walked together, following the beast, Cloud thought back onto how they had met. Red XIII was arguably the best fighter of them all. Furthermore, in the weeks that he had been travelling with them, a great bond had formed between them. And not just between the beast and Cloud, but each of them had become attached to Red XIII. He had assumed that it was the same way with Red XIII, but it would seem that the fellowship was only temporary.

'_Every alliance is temporary,'_ Cloud told himself, _'can't get attached to people. That's when they start dying.'_

In a small corner of his brain he added, _'or burn down your hometown and kill everyone you love.'_

They entered a thin chasm pass. The cliffs rose majestically above them on either side, darkening their path. "Stay close," Red XIII cautioned, "Dreaded cannibalistic tribes of humans dwell in the Valley. They attack in great numbers, you wouldn't stand a chance against them."

"I suppose that smoke signal on wheels didn't give our location away," Yuffie groaned sarcastically.

"Perhaps," Red XIII responded, "But the Gi tribes flee when they see one of my kind. When I was very small, the Gi tribes attacked my village. My tribe were protectors of those who appreciate this beautiful canyon and the Planet. My brave mother fought and died here, but my cowardly father fled."

His eye grew sad and he looked at his comrades, "I am the last of my race."

"Cowardly father?" asked Cloud.

"Yes, my father was a wastrel. In any case, my mission, inherited from my ancestors is to protect this canyon. My journey with you ends just around the corner – although I am sad to say it."

They came around the bend of a burgundy-shaded cliff and they saw it.

It seemed, from as far away as they were, to be a collection of large metal flagpoles lined against the wall of a cliff. At the top of each staff, however, there was a four-bladed propeller.

Barret recognized the windmills immediately. This was wind-generated power. Only one place on the Planet used wind energy.

"Cosmo Canyon!" Barret shouted.

Red XIII nodded, blinking with his one eye. "You've been here?"

"Yeah," Barret responded. "Long time ago." His mind was far away.

They neared the collection of wind generators. Cloud could make out collections of green cloth rooftops of huts that jutted out of the cliffside. On the top of the canyon, a great dome sat and a great thick pole pointed out towards the stars.

The closer they got to the settlement, however, the more it became apparent that the majority of the town was located on the clifftops, and they were merely at the base. Stones were piled atop one another to make crude staircases that led from one ledge to another – steeply, and all the way up. Red XIII had no trouble bounding from ledge to ledge, skipping the stairs entirely. Yuffie did so as well, using her materia to defy gravity and leap cleanly above the party to land in front of them.

"How did a bunch of animals build a town?" she called after Red XIII.

Barret stopped at a ledge to pant, "The town was built by humans," he uttered, "Funny I thought I would have remembered ya, Red."

"I mostly keep to myself unless there is trouble afoot," Red XIII called down.

There was a human gateman standing at the top of the stairs. He stood upon their approach to welcome them. When he saw Red XIII, he stopped and looked at him, nearly confused. "Nanaki?!" he asked.

Cloud feared for a moment that the language they spoke here was not the common tongue. Red XIII gave a great big toothy grin and said, "Yes."

"Nanaki! You're home! You're safe!" said the doorman, "Bugenhagen has missed you so! Go and say hello to him!"

Red XIII ran past the doorman and towards the cliff's edge.

"Nanaki?" Cloud asked.

The doorman turned to Cloud, "Welcome to Cosmo Canyon," he said, "are you familiar with this land?"

"I've passed through the Valley numerous times, but I've never seen or heard of this place."

"It can only be found by those wishing to seek it. People from all over the world gather here to seek knowledge and study planet life."

_'If it'sthat well known,'_ Cloud wondered _'why have I never heard of it?'_

"We are at full capacity at present, so I'm afraid I can't let you enter," said the doorman.

From behind him, Red XIII came and said, "They helped me when I was on the road. Please let them in."

The doorman's eyes widened and a small, inviting smile grew on his face, "You helped our Nanaki?" he asked, "If that is so, please come in!"

"Who is Nanaki?" Cloud asked, although he was almost certain he knew the answer.

"Nanaki is Nanaki. That is his name," said the doorman. A cryptic response, and an unnecessary question from Cloud.

Red XIII's real name was Nanaki.

"That means the Shildra Inn ain't got no rooms," Barret deducted, "I suppose that's a good thing, they was too small for me anyhow. I could probably get us to stay with one of the elders."

"The elders run the community?"

"Yeah, Bugah and Hargo. They're pretty much experts on the Planet, bein' over a hundred and all. I learned all about the evils of mako from them. I've never met the grand elder, but I heard he can fly."

"That's nothing special," Yuffie said, "He probably just has a float materia like me and Sephiroth."

"Hey!" called a small, old voice, "Nanaki! You're home!"

"Coming, Grandpa!" the beast called, leaping up a staircase that seemed to be naturally contructed in the cliffside – as if the rocks had willed themselves to become stairs.

"Why don't we take a break too?" Tifa asked, "Red thir—I mean, Nanaki, is going to get our buggy fixed, so I guess we can wait around for a while too. How about we meet at the big fire over there at the end of the day?"

Indeed, just to their right was a great bonfire that billowed black smoke up into the red sky. It crackled and embers like bubbles burst from the flames and floated upwards.

'_Everything looks like fire here,'_ Cloud thought, _'even Red XIII.'_

Everyone agreed and split up. Cloud walked up the stairs towards the opening in the cliff. If Nanaki was the last of his race, then who was this 'Grandpa' person anyway?


	69. Book 3: The Cry of the Planet

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**The Cry of the Planet**

Cloud entered the innards of Cosmo Canyon, expecting to see primitive, natural decorations and constructions. And for the most part he did; a ladder made of wood, tables and chairs made of rock (still tinted red from the torches inside the room). Cloud looked over at the great iron door at the far side of the room – it stuck out like a black chocobo. It did not seem to have door-handles or latches, simply an iron wall blocking what might have once been a doorway. It filled the room with an ominous ambience – like a chalk circle it seemed to emanate a negative aura. He avoided it and moved to the ladder, which was diagonally positioned enough for the beast to climb up and out through the hole in the ceiling, which led outside again.

He was above the main settlement now, looking down at the green cloth roofs and the great flame below them. He could see Barret sitting by the fire looking into it, and Yuffie dash into the materia shop. He could see Aeris speaking with a very old man, an elder perhaps. He also saw, in the distance, men with toolboxes beginning the long trek down the stone stairs and into the chasm pass.

'_Red XIII does fast work,'_ Cloud thought.

Looking behind him, he found himself right at the entrance to the observatory. Without hesitating, he walked inside.

The room he walked into was small and humble, and Nanaki sat beside a very old man.

"Cloud," Nanaki said, "this is my grandfather, Bugenhagen."

Bugenhagen was bald all over his face except for a thin goatee that was so long his smile was obstructed. The moustache met the beard over his teeth and together they twirled down and rested on the table – which seemed to be carved directly from a tree. Bugenhagen's eyes looked inquisitively at Cloud through small round spectacles, which sat on the bridge of his nose and no where else.

"He is incredible," Nanaki continued, "he knows everything."

"Hoo hoo hooo!" Bugenhagen chirped, and his voice was high pitched and festive, "I hear that you looked after Nanaki a spell! He is still a child, you see."

"Grandpa," Nanaki whined, "please. I'm forty-eight."

Bugenhagen laughed again, his mouth becoming a wide o shape and he hooted profusely, "Nanaki's tribe has incredible longevity. So you see his forty eight years would only be equivalent to say that of a fifteen or sixteen year old in human reckoning."

"Fifteen or sixteen?" Cloud asked with shock. Barely a man – not quite mature enough to join the ranks of adulthood.

"He's quiet and very deep," Bugenhagen said, stroking his whiskers, "You thought he was an adult?"

"Grandpa, please. I want to be an adult. I want to grow up to be able to protect you and the village."

"Hoo Hoo, Nanaki. You can't stand on your own yet. To do that now, it would destroy you in the long run."

Bugenhagen lifted his arms and placed them on the table. His great purple sleeves covered his hands but there was definitely materia adorning the trim of his long shirt.

"Nanaki, your spirit is like the hand of Titan. Reaching up into the heavens, threatening the snatch the very stars from the great city of Midgar but you can only touch the earth… well, that was a bad example. There are no more stars in Midgar, I suppose you snatched them. Besides, looking up too much makes you lose perspective."

Bugenhagen rose from his seat, but not by extending his legs. It was when he floated above the table that Cloud saw that, well, he had no legs. A small green pouch covered his lower half and where his legs had been.

"Your legs!" Cloud said.

"I lost them years ago," Bugenhagen said, "It's nothing. We are talking about Nanaki here."

The materia stone hanging to Bugenhagen's sleeve was glowing, and he floated above the table and turned to Nanaki.

"You are forty eight, Nanaki, and older and wiser than any human. And you will outlive us all and become older and wiser still. But when it is time for this Planet to die, you will understand that you know absolutely nothing."

Nanaki looked at the floor contemplatively.

"When the Planet dies?" Cloud asked.

Everything suddenly seemed silent as the floating elder turned in the air and faced Cloud.

"Hoo hoo!" Bugenhagen finally said, "It may be tomorrow, or one hundred years from now. But it's not long off."

"How do you know this?" Cloud asked.

Bugenhagen looked around him, as if he was listening for something. He floated back to his seat where he rested his stump of a lower body on his chair.

"I hear the cries of the Planet," the elder said, his old thin eyes growing weary with sadness.

In the silence, Cloud began to hear something. It sounded like the song of a whale, very guttural, but natural. In the observatory, the closest point to the heavens there ever was, the sounds mixed together and formed something beautiful.

"What is that noise?" asked Cloud.

"The sounds of the stars in the heavens. While this goes on, Planets are born, and they die. Stars burn up, burn out and new ones go alight."

A new sound resonated amongst the others, but it sounded flat, like a note in a chord that went sour. It was louder than the others and sounded mournful, in pain.

"What was that?!" Cloud asked.

"That," Bugenhagen said, "was a scream from this Planet. You heard its cry. It cries, as if to say 'I hurt, I suffer.'"

Nanaki looked at Bugenhagen, "Cloud and his companions are on a journey to save the Planet. Why don't you show them your apparatus?"

"Hoo hoo!" Bugenhagen laughed, "A journey to save the Planet? It's a lost cause."

Cloud seemed disappointed to hear those words from an elder.

"Still," Bugenhagen continued, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt."

"Bugenhagen!" called a small voice and a small boy walked in. "Sorry for intruding grand elder Bugenhagen oh sir, but several odd looking people have arrived. Big, armed people. I counted five of them."

"This place is getting so busy all of a sudden," Bugenhagen sighed.

"Those are our companions," Nanaki said.

"Ah. In that case, bring them in."

The boy turned and opened the door once more. Aeris stepped into Bugenhagen's living quarters, in a light, indirect way, glancing at the walls and floors as if studying something no one else could see. Bugenhagen greeted her with a gentle "Hello!" and Aeris smiled and nodded back, stepping off to the side to let Tifa through. The fighter stepped in sure-footed and determined, glancing quickly at Bugenhagen's face – then his lower half – and then she nodded. Yuffie bustled inside and looked around, her young eyes full of judgement.

"What's with the old guy?" she asked.

"This is Bugenhagen," Nanaki explained, "the grand elder of Cosmo Canyon. It would benefit you to show him some respect."

"Right," Yuffie nodded insincerely and stepped to Aeris. Cait Sith walked in (without Mog) and Bugenhagen smiled.

"My goodness!" Bugenhagen said, "Look at you! Come here."

Cait Sith reluctantly stepped forward. "Uh, hiya."

"What a feat in robotics! What is your name and function?"

"Cait Sith," the cat said nervously, "I'm an information booth and fortune telling machine. Although, without my mount, I'm afraid I'm not that useful at telling fortunes."

"Interesting. You use voltaic batteries?"

Cloud looked at the others, who seemed just as shocked as he. Cait Sith shook his head. "Mako."

Bugenhagen's smile faltered a little, "Lasts longer, does it? Your mount is also a recharger I assume."

"You assume right."

Bugenhagen turned and floated back towards Nanaki, sighing, "They don't make them like they used to. Hoo hoo. I was told there were five of you coming in. Where is the fifth?"

Barret stood outside of the doorway, unsure if he should enter. Bugenhagen spotted him. "Come in, young man."

Barret entered nervously. He bowed his head when he entered. "Hello. Niceta meetcha."

"I've seen you here before," Bugenhagen smiled, "But we've never met. I am Bugenhagen."

"…I know."

"I was just about to show Cloud my orrery. You are all welcome to join us."

Barret shook his head. "No… uh, I mean. I should go." He turned and practically smashed through the doorway, turning and squeezing through clumsily. Cloud turned to Tifa, puzzled.

"The other elders have been filling his head with legends," Bugenhagen hooted, "They like to build me up as some omnipotent force. But I'm just a silly old man who knows a thing or two. Now, would you like me to educate you?"

Another green stone hidden in Bugenhagen's sleeve lit up and the door to his right swung open by itself. The old man smiled through the thin grey hairs of his goatee and he floated inside the next room. Nanaki did not enter.

Once the humans (and Cait Sith) were inside, Bugenhagen closed the door and locked it. They stepped onto a round rostrum and Bugenhagen pressed a small button.

All of the lights went off and they began to ascend. When the lights went back on, the rostrum had lifted them into a great domed apparatus.

All along the domed ceiling were stars. They looked three dimensional, as if it was not a ceiling at all. Looking down at their feet, they felt the ground, but it looked as if they were standing on air, suspended above a great starscape. It looked like they were floating in space.

Bugenhagen, the only one of them actually floating, was in the center of the apparatus, beside a great holographic sun.

All around him were moving planets, moving slowly along red loop tracks around the sun. The red loops were the planetary paths.

This was a model of their solar system. "So pretty!" Aeris said, "It's just like the real thing!"

"Hm, yes, it is pretty good!" Bugenhagen said, "This is my orrery. All of the workings of space are entered into this three dimensional holographic system! Every year, our planet and all of these other ones fly around the sun. Our proximity to the star dictates our seasons – in the summer, we're closer. In the winter, we are farther away. These other planets are either too close or too far away from the sun to have life like ours. Look at this one here- it is covered in ice. There is no room for plants to grow, or creatures to evolve. In our solar system, we are a unique anomaly – tangible, visible life."

Cloud's eyes were fixated on the Planet. It was there, and there were numerous blots were smoke filled the atmosphere. This was the pollution of the mako reactors. He looked long and hard at the world, examining it. All around Midgar there were only gray blotches; he could not see the city. He moved his finger to touch it, and his hand went right through. Cloud moved his fingers along the path that they had taken on their journey: from the gray skies of Midgar, through the Wastelands, down into the Grasslands (he was disappointed that he could not see their Avalanche Tree), then south through the Mythril Mines, to Fort Condor, up to Junon, across the sea and over the mountains, through the great Sandy Badlands, south around the mountains and finally into the Valley of the Fallen Star, where they were now.

He wondered, for a brief moment, if he could find Sephiroth just by looking at this diagram.

The Planet had a single moon, and it was currently on the other side of the world, over Midgar. The planet would be rotated by nightfall, so that the moon would hang over the canyon.

He looked only briefly at the other planets as Bugenhagen named them off – nonsense words. No signs of life or civilization. A few small moons, but nothing special.

"Ooh! A shooting star!" Aeris said, and pointed directly at a comet, which hurtled towards the sun. It hit the star with a small puff and Aeris grinned happily. "How wonderful!"

"Yes, it's something, isn't it?" Bugenhagen said, "Let's get to the subject.

"Eventually, all sentient beings die. Humans, animals, trees, even Nanaki will die, in five hundred years or so. What happens to them after they die? Their body decomposes and returns to the Planet. That much, everyone knows. You can see it and there is proof. What about their consciousness? Their hearts and their souls? What if I was to submit to you that the soul too returns to the Planet? And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In fact, all living things in the universe are the same.

"You see, everything in the universe is fundamentally composed of energy. What you call 'matter' is just a complex form of energy. Atoms, particles, life itself. Energy cannot be created, nor destroyed. Energy can only be transferred. When we die, our life, our very soul is not destroyed. But it does not stay the same either. It is transferred to a simpler form of energy and returns to the Planet from whence it came.

"The spirits that return to the Planet merge with one another and roam the Planet. They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the 'Lifestream'. Lifestream. In other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the Planet.

"'Spirit Energy' is a word that you should never forget. A new life, children are blessed with Spirit Energy and are brought into the world. Then, the time comes with they die and once again return to the Planet... Of course there are exceptions, but this is the way of the world… I seem to have digressed, but you'll both understand better if you watch this."

Cloud and Aeris paid close attention to where Bugenhagen was pointing. He was pointing at the model of their Planet.

The holographic sphere suddenly grew, as everything else in the solar system faded away; they zoomed in on the model of the planet. All of its features were wiped clean, all of the smoke and cities disappeared and they were shown what the Planet would be like had humans never set foot on it.

Suddenly, a baby appeared on the very top of the globe. It was a poorly animated three dimensional baby that was bigger than the entire valley. Cloud set aside logic for now and watched the display.

They were now looking at an empty planet with a baby sitting atop it. The baby grew into a child, and then into a man. The man looked around for a while, and then he began to glow. His body became a mass of swirling light, and started to zoom around the globe.

'_This must symbolize death,'_ Cloud thought, _'and I suppose this is the man's spirit energy, roaming the Planet. This is the Lifestream.'_

The path of glowing light split into two streams. One of the streams stopped and began to grow into a tree. The other became another baby. The process repeated quickly, and before they knew it the planet was covered in swirling light.

"Spirit Energy makes all things possible," Bugenhagen said, "trees, birds and humans. Not just living things, but Spirit energy makes it possible for planets to be planets."

Bugenhagen raised his arm and pointed at a spot on the glowing globe. His hand was again covered by the sleeve.

The spirit energy on the Planet began to converge at the very spot where Bugenhagen was pointing.

"Now," Bugenhagen said slowly, "what happens if the Spirit Energy were to disappear?"

The sparkling Lifestream had all gathered on that side of the globe, the other side was fading quickly to black. Bugenhagen drew the Spirit Energy out of the model, and the light was sucked into his sleeve. He held his arm straight, letting the spirit energy leave the Planet and enter his hand. The Planet turned jet black as the energy abandoned it, and when all of the energy was gone, the Planet crumbled into itself. Large chunks floated off into space. The Planet was gone.

A few seconds later, they zoomed right back out and the Planet was restored to its current state, Gray skies and all. The demonstration was over and they were back to observing the universe as it was.

Cloud was in shock.

"These are the basics in the study of Planetary life," Bugenhagen said.

"If the Spirit Energy is lost," Cloud said, "the Planet is destroyed."

Bugenhagen hooted again, "Spirit Energy is efficient because it exists within nature. When Spirit Energy is forcefully extracted, and manufactured, it cannot accomplish its true purpose."

"You are talking about mako energy, right?"

Bugenhagen poked at the fog over the Planet, "Everyday mako reactors suck up Spirit Energy, diminishing it. Spirit Energy gets compressed in the reactors and processed into mako energy. All living things are being used up and thrown away. In other words, mako energy will only destroy the Planet. Why do you think animals are attacking humans? They are running out of natural food. The herbivores are losing their grass. Infant mortality rates are skyrocketing. Children are being born without souls at all, and those born in the last twenty years are all frail. Their energy was robbed from them before they were born, it was sucked up and used to light houses in the night, and broadcast situation comedies. And more and more everyday, the Planet cries louder. We can hear it in my observatory just fine. But how long until those in Midgar begin to hear it. Before it haunts their sleep? Is it a matter of days, of years? Either way, it is not long from now. This is the story of our Planet, and us who live in it. If you want to know more, you must listen to the words of the elders. I must see to Nanaki."


	70. Book 3: Cosmo Candle

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

**Cosmo Candle**

"The elders taught me many things," Aeris said to Cloud.

They sat together by the flame, the heat warming them. The seven of them were seated around the Cosmo Candle, which was not a candle at all. It was a huge eternal fire. Night was falling, they had spent the day talking to elder Hargo and elder Bugah. Bugenhagen had spent the day with Nanaki, but the beast had come to sit by the fire with them.

"About the Cetra, and the theories of a Promised Land," Aeris finished.

Cloud only looked into the fire.

"I learned some more about that summon materia of yours," Aeris said after a long pause.

"Materia is condensed mako," Cloud said, "mako is just processed Spirit Energy. Everything I've thought, the materia I've used, everything I am is just dregs of the Planet. Materia is a byproduct of the war we're waging on this Planet."

"But what about natural materia?" Aeris asked, "You told me that five years ago you stumbled upon materia in its natural state."

"We did," Tifa said, "We called it a mako fountain. Natural mako – I guess, Spirit Energy – was visible and it was crystallizing on top of an old log. Materia _can_ be produced naturally."

"Right," Aeris said, "Materia is a natural phenomenon. It is filled with the thoughts and wills of souls swimming through the Lifestream before they're recycled."

"What are you saying?" Cloud asked, "That summon creatures are souls trapped in materia?"

"Not exactly. Elder Hargo said that summon creatures aren't complete souls, but they are memories of things. Like, a materia that produces fire is made from thousands of thoughts and memories of fire swimming through the Lifestream. Because the Cetra remembered fire, or ice or lightning, those memories swam around in the stream and created a living monument to their existence – a stone that we can use to produce fire. So, if enough Cetra remember a monster, maybe the memory of that monster will become materia."

"Monster? But Shiva and Ramuh didn't seem like monsters."

"That's because they're seen as gods," Yuffie sighed, "Wutai has been around a long time – there are probably enough memories of the gods that they became materia."

"Which came first?" Cloud wondered, "The materia or the gods?"

"Who knows?" Yuffie asked, "Maybe someone made them up, but enough people believed that they manifested in materia. So now they're real, and people will believe even stronger. Kind of ironic."

"But with so many interpretations of them, how could it manifest in one form?" Cloud asked.

"It's probably a combination of everyone's thoughts," Aeris reasoned, "There isn't any consciousness in the Lifestream, people don't think or exist at all in the way we do now. It's just energy, but there's something more profound there, there's the knowledge and wisdom of an entire civilization. All the Cetra are dead, and those that haven't been reborn as trees and grass and people are just spare energy… I'm all alone now."

"But I'm…" Cloud started, "we're here for you, right?"

"I know," Aeris said, "but I am the only… Cetra."

"Does that mean we can't help?" Cloud asked. Aeris only stared into the flame.

Cait Sith then said something, "This sure brings back memories."

"What memories?" asked Yuffie.

After a pause, Cait Sith said, "Of the Gold Saucer. I didn't work there long, but bright lights remind me of it. I feel kind of homesick."

"So are you regretting following us?" Cloud asked.

"No," Cait Sith said, "I think I'm starting to support your cause. I spoke with the elders. I don't know if what I'm feeling is real pain for the Planet, or only a mechanical response to other people's pains. I don't even know if I can feel at all."

"Well," Cloud said, "I've never been sure what a soul is, and now I guess I'm as confused as ever. I don't know if what you have rattling around in that cat head of yours is a soul, manmade as it were. But I also don't know if I have any right to think mine is more justified than yours. If you can think and do on your own, then you're just as human as the rest of us."

"I guess you're right," Cait Sith said.

"Cosmo Canyon," Barret sighed, "This's where AVALANCHE was born."

Cloud looked at Barret. He had known that. It made sense, with their cause and all. It had been just over two weeks, but they had left that life long behind, on the other side of the world now.

"I promised my guys someday," Barret said, "When we saved the Planet from the Shinra, that we'd all go to Cosmo Canyon and celebrate. Biggs, an' Jessie and even Wedge, for what it's worth. They're all gone. Died for the Planet. I suppose now they gone back to it. Mebbe it's for the best. Unless Shinra sucks em up with their goddamn machines. I wonder, if they'll ever forgive me. Right now, I don't really know. But I know that if there's anything can be done 'bout savin the Planet, then I'm gonna do it. I don't care if it's for justice, or revenge or whatever. I don't care, Shinra can take it as they will. But they'll take it, and by my hand so help me."

Tifa stared into the flames and Cloud walked over and sat by her.

"Bonfires are funny, aren't they?" she asked. He put his hand on her shoulder. "They make you remember all sorts of things."

Cloud looked into the fire. He had been thinking a lot about fire. How Sephiroth threw balls of flame from his hand and torched the inn. How with a flick of his wrist he had sent Cloud's house crashing down. How Nibelheim went up in flame in a matter of minutes, reduced to cinders before the night was through.

He then thought of Tifa, and her materia of fire. Was there some connection? Had Sephiroth's actions in Nibelheim allow Tifa to use the magic from fire stones? Or was it something else, something that happened between the events at Nibelheim and his arrival in Midgar?

"You know, Cloud. Five years ago…" Tifa started, but she trailed off, unsure of whether or not to continue.

"Yes?" Cloud asked.

Tifa was silent, until, after a while, "It's nothing." Her gaze still fixed on the dancing red flames. "It's nothing. Forget I asked."

"What is it?" Cloud coaxed.

"It feels like…" Her eyes looked above the fire now, watching the embers drift towards the stars. "It feels like you're going far away."

When her head was leaned all the way back, she rolled it to look at him; her eyes were wet with the beginnings of tears.

"You really are… you, right?"

The question mystified Cloud. Of course he was him. He took his hand gently off her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. She was serious, or so it seemed. He did not know how to respond, he was not sure if he even understood the question.

"Of course I'm me. Cloud Strife, ex-SOLDIER. We grew up together. I don't understand the question."

Tifa returned her eyes to watch the fire. "That's what I'm afraid of."

"Afraid?" Cloud asked. "Afraid of what?"

"Of Shinra. That we won't find Sephiroth in time. I'm afraid of Sephiroth altogether. That maybe if, even if we destroy all the reactors, it will be too late and the Planet will never recover. I'm afraid of what we'll find when we reach Nibelheim. I'm afraid of there being a traitor among us, of any of us getting killed. I'm afraid of Nanaki leaving. I'm afraid of myself, of my power over fire. I fear fire, Cloud. I fear it and I fear to use it. But I do. I do because there is something bigger than my fear, and that's my anger. And I feel I need to use it to save the Planet. But I don't know if that will be enough."

"You've got five others with you," Cloud said, "I'm sure we could take Sephiroth and all of Shinra. We've already conquered a pack of bloodthirsty wolves who had the higher ground. We've traveled half the Planet on foot and did it under the noses of Shinra. Four out of five of us can use magic – that's gotta count for something."

"We wouldn't have stood a chance against the Midgar Zolom," Tifa said, "and Sephiroth killed it like it was a cockroach. He picked up a tree and stabbed the thing with it, Cloud! He burned down Nibelheim like it was a piece of paper. He massacred the Shinra building without getting a scratch. He can fly, and pass through metal as if it weren't there. I almost wish we don't catch him, just because I think that when we do, we're all going to return to the Planet. And then who will be around to save it?"

Cloud had no response, so he dug around in his mind until he found one.

"If we don't try, we're as good as dead anyway."

She nodded slowly. "We'll need more training before we face him."

"Well," Cloud said, "with animals getting more and more aggravated around here, I'm going to guess we'll have a lot more practice before we reach ol' Sephy."

"Just… don't call him that," Tifa shuddered.

Cloud laughed, and Tifa did as well. They weren't sure if they were laughing because it was funny, or because it was hopeless. They laughed and looking into the fire. Soon, everyone was laughing, even the perfunctory voice of Cait Sith was saying "Ha ha ha!" brightly.

Bugenhagen came to join them, floating down slowly from his observatory. "The Cosmo Candle," he sighed, "All day and night, those skilled with materia keep this flame alight from the safety of their homes."

"Using all of that magic - doesn't it tire them out?" Tifa asked.

"Goodness, no!" Bugenhagen laughed, "There are so many doing it - so many that are powerful mages - that we barely feel it at all. Sometimes I even forget that part of this flame comes from me. And part of this flame comes from Nanaki as well, the Candle glows even brighter now that he has returned."

The last of the laughter stopped and all eyes turned to Nanaki, who watched the flame with his eye.

"Long ago," he started, "when I was still very small. We were all around this flame…never mind."

"What happened?"

"It's about my parents," Nanaki said. "When I talk about my mother, I am full of pride and joy. And that's fine. But when I remember my father, my heart becomes full of anger."

"You really can't forgive your father?" Bugenhagen asked.

Cloud turned around and looked at the old man, who must have floated up behind them.

"Of course," Nanaki said, "he left Mother for dead! When the Gi attacked, he ran off by himself, leaving Mother and the people of the Canyon!"

Bugenhagen paused a moment, then, "Come, Nanaki. There is something you should see."


	71. Barret's Recollection: AVALANCHE

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 16**

**Barret's Recollection: AVALANCHE**

_'Marlene was cradled in my arm as we walked through the Valley of the Fallen Star. I was strugglin' to carry this large pack all day and night, but it held our tent and our food well enough. It took us a few weeks to see any life whatsoever, but when we did, we didn't jes see life, we saw Cosmo Canyon._

_"Hello!" said the doorman, "Welcome to Cosmo Canyon! Do you know anythin' bout this place?"_

_"I've heard of it," I said, "stuff about the Planet, right?"_

_"Yes," he says, "There's people comin' from all over the world to study Planet life!"_

_"Well," I said, "I ain't no expert, never intend to be. But my little girl here, she deserves some schoolin' in a few years and I think that you guys might be able to help us out."_

_"Your daughter?" the doorman asked._

_It was funny, Marlene an' I, we don't look anything at all alike. He skin's as white as a jumpin' hare's fur! But even the people in Gongaga were assumin' that she was my babe. An' I love her dearly so, like a father should. 'Sides, she ain't got any other parents, that we knew of at the time. Dyne'd jes have her killed anyhow._

_"Certainly," said the doorman, "as long as there's space, we always welcomin' those who wish to learn."_

_We entered the town and I rested Marlene on the red stone ground. She was almost a year, and could walk, as most one year olds could. Next year or so, she should be talking fine and proper, and soon after that she'd be starting to learn concepts like love, and death and such._

_There was a woman sitting by a large bonfire, and Marlene ran towards her as fast as her little legs could carry her. Halfway there, her legs were not fast enough and she toppled over forwards. She did not cry, she began to crawl towards the fire._

_I hate fire. I scooped up Marlene and began to take her away._

_"Cute kid," said the woman, "is she yours?"_

_"Matter of fact," said I, an' I let the sentence finish itself in her mind, "I'm Barret. An who might you be?"_

_The woman stood up, "My name is Jessie," she said and held out her right hand. I reached out my right hand to shake, but my large gun-arm clanked against her hand. She backed away, startled._

_"No! Shit no!" I said, "Sorry, a few months ago, there was a hand there good as new. Shinra shot it off when they burned down my hometown."_

_"Shinra did that to you?" Jessie asked._

_"Yeah, an' they killed everyone I knew. If you ever been to Corel, it ain't there no more."_

_The expression of Jessie's face was a look of shock. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped slightly._

_"Whaddya mean, not there?"_

_"It got burned down by the Shinra. Said that Corel was responsible for blowin up a reactor down south. Me an' Marlene here, we the only survivors."_

_"Oh fuck," Jessie said slowly, sitting down, "Oh fuck oh no."_

_"What is it?" I asked._

_Jessie looked at the gun-arm and said, "I… jes' didn't know. Shockin' news. Shinra killed a lot of my townsfolk too."_

_"Really? Guess that makes us friends, don't it?" I asked._

_"I s'pose," Jessie said, "I was from Gongaga."_

_"We just came from there!" I'm smilin' now._

_"Really? How are the townsfolk?"_

_"Oh they're fine, your doctor's a real wacko though. Did this to my arm, was his idea'n everythin."_

_"Doctor Thorpe? That's my dad. I can't believe you listened to him."_

_"Course I did. I couldn't stand havin an artificial arm. Got me a gun-arm to get my revenge on the Shinra. I'm gonna march right into Midgar, and give that ol' President what he's askin for."_

_Jessie's eyes lightened a bit and she said, "You have to meet someone. Come with me."_

_Sitting with Elder Hargo was a short and cocky looking man with brown hair, he turned and looked at Jessie, holding his conversation with the planetary sage._

_"Jessie! How have you been?" he asked, "the inn isn't too uncomfortable, I presume?"_

_This guy talked all proper like, like he was full of himself or somethin'._

_"Hey Biggs. Barret and Marlene, I want you to meet Biggs and Elder Hargo. Elder Hargo is a scholar of Planetary Life, an' Biggs is, well, like us."_

_"Not exactly," Biggs says all proper, "if you're anything like Jessie you ain't quite like me."_

_I put Marlene down on a chair and she's smackin' the wood repeatedly, gargling to herself and laughing._

_"Nice to meet you both," I said, "I came here to get my daughter Marlene some learnin, but if you're after the Shinra, I'd be more than happy to help out."_

_"Well, actually," Biggs said, "I was planning on becoming an elder like Hargo here. I left my hometown, Nibelheim, to join SOLDIER but I stumbled upon this place. Elder Hargo taught me the ways of Spirit Energy and I realized what a terror Shinra is."_

_"Spirit what?" I ask, cause you don't need to know nothin' 'bout any of that down in the mines._

_"Shinra's treachery goes beyond murderin' townsfolk and burning down cities," Jessie said, "as it turns out, mako reactors are sucking up the lifeblood of the Planet."_

_"The mako reactors," Biggs explained, "take mako from the Planet and convert it into useable energy. This energy is spoiled, and it is useless to the world, it cannot return. It has been turned into heat or light or motors for cars. If the mako reactors are allowed to do this, they'll suck up all the Planet's energy and the land will wither."_

_An' I say, "What's so important about mako energy?"_

_"Mako is the lifeblood of this planet, Barret. I'm only going to say that to you once. Without mako, the Planet will die."_

_Jessie and little Marlene played by the Cosmo Candle for a few hours, an' me and Biggs and old man Hargo talked about the Lifestream._

_"What's a brain?" Biggs asked me but it was obvious we all already knew the answer. I told him any one with a brain knows what it is. It's where your thoughts come from, it's what makes you move and live. "The brain is a complex series of on and off switches – like lightbulbs. A million billion lightbulbs, all in different combinations. But whose sittin' in your brain, turning all those switches on and off again? Whose the little Barret sittin in your brain? The answer is energy. A little lightning spark is zapping around all the time in your brain, flipping on switches because of what the eyes see and the nose smells and the ears hear."_

_"So there's lightning in my brain?"_

_"Where do clouds come from?"_

_"The sky."_

_"No. They come from the ocean. The sun heats up the water and it becomes gas that floats up into the sky – the energy changes shape but remains energy. When it's in the air it collects and floats around like a cloud. Where does the rain go?"_

_"Back down to us."_

_"An' where does the lightning go?"_

_"It always tries to find a way back to the Planet."_

_"Exactly. When ya die, your soul – your brain lightning – is released and it goes where all lightning goes – back to the Planet."_

_He was tryin' to make it simple for me, but I was still a little confused. We talked for hours an' hours until I finally got it – everything about Spirit Energy and the crisis for the Planet._

_"This is a helluva lot bigger than I thought it would be!" I shouted, "Why the hell doesn't everyone know this?"_

_"Because Shinra controls the radio, the television, the world, basically," Jessie said._

_"Well, we can't let em!" I announced._

_"Ha!" Biggs said, "what do you suppose we do, march right into Midgar?"_

_"Why the hell not?" I asked, "Every drop blood o' mine is a bullet, and I'll use 'em all up if it'll save the Planet!"_

_"Taking action is for others," Biggs said._

_"So what are you gonna do?" I asked, "sit around and complain while Shinra destroys everything bit by bit? How long do ya think it'll take before the winds stop? Before the waves in the ocean stop hittin the beaches. Before children start dyin before they even born? Are you gonna sit there on yo' high horse and say it ain't your problem? We have to destroy those reactors! Shinra burned down my hometown on account of there being terrorists there. Well there weren't, but so help me this is the first Corel man to become a terrorist. I'm gonna find out how to blow up a reactor, and I'm gonna do it."_

_"I'll help," Jessie said._

_"Jessie?" Biggs asked, "what the hell? I thought you aspired to be an elder?"_

_"I know about bombs, a little," Jessie said, careful with her words. "Mebbe if I try hard enough, I could figure out how to blow up a reactor."_

_"You are talking about bombing mako reactors. You would be killing hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent people."_

_"The world is full of millions," I said, "I say it's worth it if we're gonna save everyone else. Shinra unleashed a war on this Planet and if we don't fight it, we deserve to die with the Planet."_

_Biggs thought for a long time._

_"Will you join us?" Barret asked._

_"Are you asking me if I have skills?" Biggs smirked._

_"Don't care if you got skills. Just need your support. Anyone can shoot a gun."_

_"I don't know anyone with better aim than I," Biggs said confidently._

_"So you're in?" Jessie asked._

_Biggs looked at Hargo._

_"Life's too short to know everything," Hargo said, "if I weren't so damned old, I'd come with you." Or somethin' like that._

_"Yeah," Biggs said, "I'm in, but only cause you really want me. Besides, I could shed some light about the Planet while we're on the way to Midgar."_

_"You do that," I said._

_"I guess we'll have to decide on a leader, then," Jessie said._

_"How about me?" Biggs asked._

_"Shit no!" I said, "it took convincing for you just to join us!"_

_"I agree with Barret," Jessie said, "I think he should lead us."_

_"Course," I said, "we'll have to have a name."_


	72. Book 3: The Great Warrior

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**The Great Warrior**

The great iron door had been sealed by Bugenhagen many years ago. For those many years, the townsfolk had always wondered why.

Nanaki stood looking at Bugenhagen as he cast the spell to break the seal. The iron door creaked open and Bugenhagen floated inside.

"Come in! Come in Nanaki! Hoo ho hooo!"

Nanaki followed, and his tail glowed brightly in the darkness.

They were on an overhang that overlooked a great fall. At the bottom, the cave glowed green from the mako. "Stains of the Lifestream," Bugenhagen chuckled to himself. The rocky exterior of the Valley of the Fallen Star shooed Shinra's prying eyes away from potential development – however beneath the surface was an abundance of Spirit Energy. Because of this, Bugenhagen used to come in here all the time and find natural materia lying around. He used magic sparingly, only when he needed to. The Cosmo Candle warded off the vicious, nocturnal Gi tribes that lurked in the dark crevices of the red valley.

There were several ledges on the way down and Nanaki leapt down onto each, the green at the bottom illuminated the great warren he jumped down. Bugenhagen simply let himself descend at Nanaki's speed. Materia aided Bugenhagen in his travel since losing his legs to disease fifty years ago, when he thought he was getting on in years. Without pollution, he found, human life lasted much longer than the average lifespan. He wondered about the Cetra's parentage - had her mother seen the end of the Cetra? Was Nanaki's friend to outlive them all by hundreds of years? The last Cetra girl - she perplexed him.

Finally, they reached the bottom. Streams of green and blue stretched up behind them, but they looked ahead into the cave.

It was brilliantly coloured, reds and yellows, purples blues and green. However, offsetting the beauty were humanoid skeletons aplenty.

"What is this?" Nanaki asked.

Bugenhagen floated into the tunnel. It was long and winding. Nanaki followed after.

"Grandpa?" Nanaki asked, "who are all of these people?"

"These are all bodies of the Gi tribe. They were killed in a certain battle."

"A certain battle?" Nanaki asked.

"Nanaki," Bugenhagen said, "you don't remember the war with the Gi well, do you?

Nanaki shook his head, "I remember seeing Mother get killed, and the townsfolk die by the scythes of the Gi."

"They were relentless," Bugenhagen said. "We were all sitting around the Cosmo Candle, do you remember?"

"Yes," Nanaki said, "but why did the eternal flame die out in the first place?"

"As you know, little one, the concentration from those using materia wanes on occasion. Even elders tire out and need a few moments rest. The flame is only eternal because of the amount of spellcasters tending to the flame. Even when uncoordinated, the flame is always tended to by someone. It's only once a millennia when all of the spellcasters break at the same time. And so it was - I saw first and attempted to relight the flame but the Gi were already rushing in - thirsty for blood. They were waiting just outside of the village, waiting for their chance to strike. And strike they did."

"You picked me up and took me inside where it was safe. You left to join the battle, but all I could do was watch."

"As you can probably tell, this cave leads to the back of Cosmo Canyon. It was unfortunate that the Gi were bigger than us. They were massive, Nanaki. You probably can't remember their size, but they were giants, should they still exist. If they attacked through here, we would not have stood a chance."

The cave split numerous times and they passed more bodies, following the trail.

"Is that why you sealed off the iron door?" Nanaki asked.

"Partly," Bugenhagen said.

They passed more skeletons.

"This warrior went through the cave all alone," Bugenhagen said, speaking not of the skeletons but of someone else, "fighting attackers one after the other. He was amazing, no normal person could kill all of them. Even with all of my magic and all of the SOLDIERs in the world, the Gi would have killed us all."

"Grandpa," Nanaki said, "that warrior…"

"We're almost there! Hoo hoo!" Bugenhagen said. "Now, let us speak of your eye. What happened to it?"

"I lost it in Midgar," Nanaki said. "A great beast stabbed it out with glass. I survived, though. That is what matters. My injuries now are not as bad as some I have gotten along my journeys."

Bugenhagen turned towards the exit of the cave, "Now I know," he said, "It was not a mistake bringing you here. Come, I have something I want to show you, right over here."

The cave opened up to the back of the canyon. Mist lay on the ground, it had fallen this night. They stood on rocks in a thin precipice, between to rocky cliff edges.

Nanaki looked up at the moon. It hung big and bright tonight. White and brilliant, but there was something in front of it. On top of the cliff, something like a silhouette. It kind of looked like…

"This is…" Nanaki said, leaping onto a boulder.

"The warrior who fought against the Gi. He kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canyon. But he was never able to return to town."

Nanaki recognized the warrior now. He was quadruped, like Nanaki himself.

"Look, Nanaki. Look at your father. At the warrior, Seto."

Drums pounded in Nanaki's ears with mention of that name. Forty years of hatred and contempt all in vain, his heart pounded in his throat.

"Seto continued to fight the Gi here. To the protect this Canyon. Even after the Gi's poisonous arrows turned his body to stone. Even after they all ran away. Seto, continued to protect us. And he continues to protect us, even now."

"Even now," Nanaki repeated, the drums still pounding in his ears, and the song of the canyon echoing in his brain. The tribal flute that Elder Hargo would play, to honor the warriors who fought the Gi. Nanaki had always excluded his father.

"Even now," Nanaki said again, "even though he's dead."

"He has been turned to stone," Bugenhagen said, "but he is not dead. His body will never recover, but his soul is trapped within. His spirit still protects us from within that body, and the Gi know it."

"Did Mother know?" asked Nanaki.

"Hoo ho hooo!" Bugenhagen hooted, "She knew. The two of them made me promise to keep this cave shut. To seal it myself and not tell a soul, and to forget about this cave, should the Gi attack again. But Seto has made sure of that."

Nanaki looked up at his father.

"Nanaki," Bugenhagen said, floating up to look at him eye to eye, "I want you to continue your journey with Cloud and the others."

"Grandpa?!" Nanaki asked.

"Listen, Nanaki. Cloud says they are trying to save the Planet. Honestly, I think it can't be done. For even if they stop every reactor on the Planet, it's only going to postpone the inevitable. Even if they stop Sephiroth, everything will perish."

Nanaki looked at Bugenhagen, and the elder could tell that the beast was miserable.

"But Nanaki. I've been thinking lately. I've been thinking if there was anything we could do. As part of the Planet, something to help a world in so much misery. No matter what happens, isn't it important to try? Am I just wishing against fate? I am too old to do anything about it. This year, I'll be one hundred and thirty! Ho hoo! That is why, Nanaki, you must go with them. For my sake."

"Grandpa," Nanaki said.

"I wanted to show you your real father before you left… I'm so glad you came back while I was still alive to show you."

"Grandpa, don't talk like that. I don't want to think of life… without you."

Bugenhagen laughed, "Well, I've had a long life."

Nanaki stood up, jumping up to the next boulder, closer now to the silhouette of his father. He looked down at Bugenhagen and stated, "You must live! I'll see to it! I'll see what's happening to the Planet and I will come back to tell you."

"Nanaki…" Bugenhagen started.

Provoked by that, Nanaki jumped to a ledge of the cliff. "I am Nanaki!" he said, "of Cosmo Canyon. Son of the warrior Seto. I will come back a warrior true to that noble name."

Something dropped past Nanaki's working eye. It was like a drop of rain, and it hit the ground by Bugenhagen. Another one dropped right past Nanaki and hit the ground below.

"That's…" Bugenhagen said in bewilderment, "Seto's…"

Nanaki leapt to the top of the cliff and stood behind the stone figure of his father, who was riddled with arrows and spears. Nanaki walked right up and looked at Seto's closed stone eyes. Out of them, tears were dripping, and they fell towards Bugenhagen below them.

Standing beside his father, Nanaki howled up at the moon, which lit half the sky.


	73. Book 3: The Beginning of the Nightmare

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

**The Beginning of the Nightmare**

"They said they finished fixin the buggy," Barret said, returning to Cosmo Candle. It was the morning, a cold morning at that and the team was huddled by the fire. There was no room at the Shildra Inn but they had stayed with Elder Hargo in his hut. Hargo and Barret had talked for most of the night - about AVALANCHE.

Cloud stood. "Good. There's heating in the buggy. Shall we get going?"

Aeris stood as well, "I guess this is it, R—Nanaki is staying here."

They had not seen Nanaki since last night when he left with Bugenhagen.

"That's just the way it goes," said Cloud, "he came in handy at times."

They walked past the doorman and heard Nanaki's familiar voice calling for them.

"Wait for me!" Nanaki shouted, "I'm coming too!"

Behind Nanaki, flying quickly was Bugenhagen, "Cloud!" the old man shouted, his long beard flowing in the wind behind him, "please look after Nanaki!"

Cloud nodded, but asked, "What happened?"

"I think I grew up a little, that's what happened!" Nanaki said, and ran to catch up with the group. Bugenhagen rolled up his sleeve and extended his slender hand for a shake. Cloud accepted and the old man smiled.

It was a ten hour ride to Nibelheim, and the buggy had to pass through a ravine. Barret offered to drive, but Tifa had given him a nasty slap for suggesting it.

They passed through the ravine without trouble. There was a pack of Nibel wolves that seemed to want to pick a fight, but the buggy doors remained closed and the vehicle was faster than the wolves.

They were nearing the ruins of Nibelheim, but Tifa slowed the buggy long before they reached there.

"It can't be!" she said. Cloud walked up and looked through the windshield.

He looked through and saw the ruins of Nibelheim. Only something was horribly wrong. They were not ruins at all – the town was in perfect shape.

Tifa parked the buggy outside of town and they neared the gates, the letters were painted on the wooden header same as always: _Nibelheim_.

"This was supposed to be all burnt down!" Tifa shouted, "right?"

"I thought so," Cloud said.

"Then why…" Tifa started, "Look! My house is still here and everything!"

"Something is strange," Aeris said.

"I don't buy your story," Yuffie said, "this town ain't burnt down; it doesn't even look like it. The grass is old but fine, every building is intact!"

"I'm not lying!" Cloud shouted, but something in his mind told him, that, perhaps he was wrong. There was… something wrong with Cloud's memory. Perhaps there was some mix-up. He began to get a throbbing headache, and clutched his head.

"Cloud! No!" Tifa shouted, "Nibelheim burned down, I remember it as clearly as you do. You're not going crazy!"

The headache seemed to dissipate. He looked at Tifa and she looked at him with stern marvel. "I know I'm not," he said, "I remember… the intense heat of the flames…"

The town was quiet, and they passed through the gates. Cloud ran into his house and Tifa into hers.

Cloud burst through the front door of his childhood home. The front hall was not charred. In fact, everything was intact, right down to the mauve armchair by the fireplace. There was a woman sitting in the chair, with her back turned to him. Cloud approached the chair.

"Mom?" he asked.

The woman turned around. It was not Cloud's mother.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"I lived in this house until I was fourteen," Cloud said, "but this whole town was burnt down!"

"Are you sick?" the woman cried, "saying those things? I've lived here all my life. Get out of here!"

Flabbergasted, Cloud felt a buckling in his knees. How he wished Tifa had been there right now, to shake him and to tell him that he was not going crazy. He lived here – he remembered stumbling through the scorched hallways, finding his mother dead, the armchair ablaze. He remembered leaving moments before its collapse.

He felt sick, and he thought his knees would finally give way. He turned to grab a hold of the kitchen counter and what he saw scared him onto the floor.

Standing in the kitchen was a man in a black cloak.

Every iota of his being forced Cloud back to his feet at the man in the black cloak stood in the kitchen – swaying to and fro – concealed by the hood of the cloak. Cloud ran up to the man and turned him around. He could have sworn, for an instant he saw the face of Sephiroth, but when he blinked it was a face covered in shadows, but a human face nonetheless. His eyes glowed and his skin was turning green. He was as sick as, as…

Sick man from Sector 5.

Cloud remembered the glowing white rolled back eyes, the green skin, the drooling and the moaning. Who were these people? The man in his kitchen did not seem to notice him, even though Cloud was clutching him by the shoulders. Rolling up the man's sleeve, Cloud saw a tattoo on his wrist. The tattoo was of the number 'XII.'

The wrist twitched and the man marked Number XII grabbed Cloud by the shoulders and pushed him against the stove. Cloud shouted for help, but the woman sat in her chair and knitted, not seeming to notice.

"Can… you… hear… the… voice… of… Se… phi… roth?" Number XII asked. His hold was strong, Cloud was backed up right against the stove, the tip of his sword prodding into his thigh.

Cloud pushed Number XII off of him and sprinted out of the house, not looking back.

The door had been left ajar, he ran through it and arrived back in the courtyard.

Seeing Nibelheim altogether whole again, with the well in the middle was like something out of a horrific nightmare. What was worse, standing by the well was another man in a cloak. A black spot on the sunny picture of Nibelheim, breaking the image of perfection.

"Must… get… it… and… bring… it…. to… Sephi… roth," he gargled, "Then… be… come… one… with… Se… phiroth…"

Cloud approached him and lifted up his sleeve. On his wrist was the tattoo 'V'

Tifa came running out of her house.

"Something is very wrong here!" she shouted, "the people in there are lying, saying they lived there for years, but it's not true, Cloud!"

She saw Mr. V and screamed "Ah! There's another one!"

"There was one in your house too?!"

"By the piano," she said, "he was saying something about a 'Reunion.'"

Reunion. Somehow, that caused a great stirring within the pit of Cloud's belly. He felt sick. He stumbled over to Tifa and met up with the others, who hadn't dared entered the gates yet. They stood outside the borders of Nibelheim as if a great hex was prohibiting them from entrance to this world from beyond the tomb.

"We can set you up at the Inn," said Cloud.

Moving to the Inn, they walked inside. The innkeeper smiled at them, not seeming to notice the man cloaked and standing beside the counter. He was not doing anything, he was just standing, wavering from side to side and murmuring, "Must… go… to… Re… un… ion…"

"Hi! Welcome!" said the innkeeper.

"What the hell is going on?!" Cloud asked. "This town was supposed to have burnt down five years ago."

"Sir, don't say such awful things," the innkeeper said angrily, "I was born and raised in this town. What you say never happened."

"You're lying!" Tifa shouted.

"That's so rude!" shouted the innkeeper, "if you're going to talk like that to me, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"No!" Cloud shouted, "what the hell is up with these cloaked men? Why aren't you acknowledging them?!"

"I said leave, sir!"

Cloud kicked the desk in frustration and the team of seven left the inn and returned to the town square.

What they saw was a very different scene.

The square was filled with cloaked men. Ten at least, perhaps more. Seeing them so suddenly made Tifa scream and back into the wall of the inn.

The men in cloaks were moving slowly, as if they had rose from the grave in a cheesy television program. But this was very real. And it scared them all deeply.

The cloaked man from the Inn wandered outside and Cloud grabbed his wrist. The number 'IV'

"They're all numbered," he said, "this guy's number IV."

"This is one eerie ass town!" Barret shouted, "why the hell did you guys live here for so long?!"

The cloaked men seemed to now be moving all in the same direction, which was better than just standing around, it calmed his nerves a little. He walked towards the flock and checked wrists. The men in cloaks did not seem to notice or care, they simply continued talking to themselves.

"The… great… Se… phi… roth... is…. calling…"

"The…man…sion… Se… phi… roth… is… urggh… reun…ion!"

The mansion! Cloud ran up the steps to the gateway to the Shinra mansion, the only building untouched by the flames Sephiroth conjured five years ago.

The moment when he burst through the mansion doors was the moment when Cloud realized that his adventure had ended, and this was the beginning of a nightmare. A very real nightmare, one from which he would not wake.

The walls and ceiling drooped towards him in their perpetual ash gray, the old stronghouse of the Shinra legend on its last legs. A thin layer of dust covered the floor. Cloud was sure this building had been untouched.

There was a paper on the ground, a very old one that Cloud stepped over without much thought. It was face down and Cloud hadn't read it. Its contents:

I must get rid of all who stand in my way, including that one from the Turks. After shooting him, he has shown remarkable resilience. I began testing him, but I grow weary of playing with him. I have put him to sleep in the basement to pick up later. In the meanwhile, I will continue to learn from Professor Gast as Sephiroth grows into a bright young boy. That is all for today

Cloud ran up the split-staircase, confident that it would not break. He had run up this creaky staircase before. The mansion looked exactly the same, as dilapidated as it had been five years ago. He ran into the bedroom, where he had slept…

No, he had slept in the window seat in the West Wing. Hadn't he?_ 'Come on, _Cloud_,'_ he thought, _'pull yourself together. Sephiroth is here, you've caught him. It is over.'_

Without delay, he kicked open the secret passage in the fireplace and began to run down the spiral staircase. As he ran, he scolded himself for getting worked up

'_It's where you slept,'_ Cloud, he thought,_ 'who cares if you slept in the bed, or the window seat. Those are details, they aren't important. You are chasing the man that burned this town to the ground. You aren't crazy, you can't be. Tifa knows this town was burned down, even those lying sons of bitches townsfolk know it. Sephiroth is evil and must be stopped. And right now is the time to do it. Don't flinch, don't chicken out. You couldn't kill him last time, well now's your chance to redeem yourself!'_

He reached the bottom of the staircase and saw the black tunnel, but the sliver of light was not shining at the other end. It was just a black, long tunnel, and who knew what kind of creatures made their home here. Perhaps a giant spider, they were known to live on this side of the world. Perhaps poisonous worms, or snakes.

'_Or maybe it's a dorky face!'_ Cloud laughed to himself. The dorky face was a mythical pincushion that could control thoughts and turn people on each other. Cloud had heard such stories from his mother, seated in the mauve chair. His mother was dead now and there was a goddamn impostor in his goddamn mauve chair!

He had been experiencing such a variety of mood swings that he had just stood at the bottom of the chimneystack, staring into a black void. He cleared his thoughts, breathed deeply and moved into the blackness.

He moved along slowly, the ground seemed the same, and no clicking of spiders legs, no giggling from some ungodly ghoul. No ghosts, no myths. Just a black tunnel.

His eyes began to adjust and he saw the door up ahead. Furthermore, he saw another door in the hallway. A door he had never seen before, for the light from the library had been Cloud's focus all the times before this moment. The door was there, and as old as the house was. He would have to inspect it later.

He creaked open the library door.

The library looked different. Tampered with. The books were on the shelves, and Cloud distinctly remembered Sephiroth bringing them all down.

Wait… Sephiroth had put them all back. What a display of power that had been, Sephiroth had lifted them all up with a wave of his hand. It was a shame to have forgotten it for that brief moment.

The room was dark, so Cloud could only make out the shapes of large test tubes in the library. Someone had been doing experiments in here, and it had been after the burning of Nibelheim.

Perhaps all of the people in Nibelheim were experiments, just like Sephiroth. Perhaps they were the sick people, Sephiroth's flunkies, his followers – his disciples.

Cloud heard movement from within the library. He moved to the hallway and saw Sephiroth, standing plainly at the other end with his back turned to him – standing still with big back to him – not wavering like the man in the kitchen – not wearing a hooded cloak. He was wearing Sephiroth's cloak, a high-collared trenchcoat he had knitted himself. The cloak – and Sephiroth's long silver-white hair – statically drifted, as if they were not bound by gravity but by the force of Sephiroth himself. This had to be Sephiroth. It was him. It was him. Cloud couldn't find it in himself to draw his sword.

"Being here sure brings back memories," Sephiroth said, and he slowly turned to look at Cloud. "Are you here to participate in the Reunion?" he asked.

"I don't even know what a Reunion is!" Cloud shouted.

"Jenova will be at the reunion," Sephiroth explained casually, thinning his cat-like eyes. "Jenova will rejoin at the Reunion and become a calamity from the skies."

"A calamity from the skies?!" Cloud asked, "you mean she wasn't an Ancient?"

"I see…" he frowned, "I'm not sure you have the right to participate. I will go north past Mount Nibel. If you wish to find out, then follow."

"Reunion?" Cloud asked, bewildered, "Calamity from the skies?"

It seemed not to matter. Cloud was between Sephiroth and the exit. If he held this ground, Sephiroth would never—

The green materia Sephiroth threw at Cloud hit him in the head and he toppled over. As his vision faded to black, he saw Sephiroth rise up and fly over him, his plans of revenge were once again foiled as he passed out.

His eyes drifted open slowly and he realized he was still in the library. For the first time all day, he was glad. The nightmare was over. Aeris held his head and was looking into his eyes.

"Cloud?" she asked, "can you hear me?"

"Yeah, Aeris," he said.

"Sephiroth hit you with this," Tifa said, walking into Cloud's vision. She held up a green stone, "this is a materia stone, but we don't know what it does."

"I'll take it," Cloud said with a grim sarcasm, "Sephiroth gave it to me anyhow."

"So he was down here?" Aeris asked.

"Yes, but he got the slip on me. He's heading North past the Nibel mountains. Tifa, you can guide us through there."

"I should be able to," Tifa said, "after all, they probably rebuilt the bridge too."

"Maybe it'll hold this time," Cloud said, rubbing his forehead. He sat up and Aeris released her tender grip. Cloud finished, "although if they were going for historical accuracy, you might want to think twice about crossing it."

"Who's they anyhow?" Barret asked from the far room, he was holding a torch and overlooking records that had been sprawled out on the desk.

"Shinra, most likely," Cloud reasoned, "This whole town seems like a cover operation – built and populated by fake people. I don't know if they were always like that or whether it's a transformation. I wonder if Sephiroth is doing it to them, turning people into mindless slaves… it happened to sick man in Sector 5."

"The man in the pipe?" Aeris asked, "What does he have to do with this?"

"He had a tattoo on his wrist like all of the men here. The same syndrome – I know it. Maybe they all have Jenova cells injected into them, like the mutants from five years ago."

"Maybe they _are_ the mutants from five years ago," Tifa posed, "Jenova can change her shape, right?"

Cloud approached Barret's torchlight and perused the documents with Barret. "Was Sephiroth inspecting these?"

"Dunno. This has nothing. Two fugitives found near Midgar. Experiment Z was shot and killed, experiment C was left for dead. Bla bla bla, there's nothin' here."

"Time's wasting," Tifa said behind them, "I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to, and I have a feeling we've overstayed our welcome as is. Sephiroth's… followers went into the mountains, if we hurry we could find Sephiroth before they do."

"Yeah," Cloud said, "there's just one thing I have to look into."

The door was locked with a padlock, but Cloud had cut the thing right off with his sword. Nanaki, Cait Sith and Yuffie had wandered into the mansion and met up with the first group, and they were now breaking into the room between the library and the great winding stair.

It creaked inwards and stillness filled their nostrils. They moved in out of the blackness of the tunnel and into the new room.

There were coffins in here, not many, Cloud counted four. Flanking the door was a grand piano with a bench that Tifa sat upon comfortably.

"Tifa," Aeris asked, "Play something. I don't like this silence."

"Jes' don't make it creepy," Barret added.

Tifa lifted her fingers to the ivory and began to play.

The melodies were soothing, but they echoed out of the room and into the darkness hauntingly. Tifa had always shown great talent in piano, it had been all she was interested in before Cloud left for Midgar. After he had left, she had found time for martial arts, and in the last five years, had almost mastered the magic of fire.

Barret moved the torch around the room, lighting different areas. Spiders scurried from their webs, they were small and harmless.

"This room sure don't look new," he said, "Looks damn old."

"Let's get outta here," Yuffie called from the tunnel.

Aeris was looking at one coffin with surprising interest, as she read the name on the small golden plaque. Cloud walked up beside her and read it.

FAREMIS GAST

"He was part of the Jenova Project," Cloud explained, "I think he was the one who created Sephiroth."

"You told me that," Aeris said, "In Kalm. But Cloud—"

There was movement inside one of the coffins. Cloud unclipped his sword and the music from the piano suddenly stopped.

The lid of the coffin opened and slid off, landing on the ground with a thud that sent dust jumping into the air all around it. They had all backed towards the door now; Barret pointed the torch menacingly in the direction of the open coffin.

When the figure sat up, it looked surprisingly less menacing than any of the cloaked men. His face was pale and he wore a red bandanna which shadowed his eyes, which also were a blood red. But in them was living intelligence, unlike the men in the cloaks. He looked thoughtfully at them. His long dark raven coloured hair was long and mangled, from years of growth.

Just starting below the nose, his face was masked by an enormously tall red collar. From behind it, he spoke.

"To wake me from the nightmare…" he said, "who is it?"

His red eyes looked over the room. At all of them, Tifa, sitting at the piano, her hands were hovering over the keys in shock.

The man in the coffin and Cloud locked eyes for a long time. He looked into Cloud's glowing blue eyes for what seemed to Cloud like minutes. Cloud returned the stare, looking at the pale slit of skin between the shaggy raven black hair and the bright red collar.

"I've never seen you before," the man said, looking at Barret's torch briefly with disdain, "You must leave."

His voice was raspy – deep. He spoke slowly.

"You were having a nightmare," Cloud said.

Tifa stood from her piano bench and dropped her arms to her sides, "How bad was your dream?" she asked.

The man in red huffed, "A nightmare? My long sleep has given me time to atone."

"What are you saying?" Cloud prodded.

"I have nothing to say to strangers. Get out," the man lay back down inside the coffin and uttered, "This mansion is the beginning of your nightmare."

"You can say that again," Cloud nodded.

The man huffed again from inside of the coffin, "What do you know?" he asked critically.

Cloud sat on the piano bench, the tip of his huge sword touching the floor behind the bench, "Like you said, this mansion is the beginning of a nightmare," and then, after a thought, "No, it's not a dream. It's real. Sephiroth has lost his mind. He learned all the secrets hidden in this mansion."

"Sephiroth?" the man in red asked.

Cloud stood from the bench and took a step towards the coffin. The man sleeping within sat up in surprise. Both of them said in unison, "You know Sephiroth?"

Yuffie laughed at their unity, and the man in red moved his eyes to look at her. She quieted immediately and backed out of the room.

The man stood, and Cloud was surprised to find that he towered over the ex-SOLDIER. His large red collar was actually the collar of a long red cape. The rest of his garments were black. He looked down at Cloud and said, "You go first."

"Sephiroth and I were in SOLDIER together after he won the war against Wutai. We came here on a mission and he discovered Jenova, and the library here. He read every book and went mad, destroying the town. I fought him and after that, he was missing. Shinra rebuilt the town, but they didn't touch the mansion."

"So Sephiroth knows he was created years ago?" the man in red asked, "about the Jenova Project?"

"Yes. He's recently re-appeared, and has taken many lives. He is seeking the Promised Land." Cloud looked at the group behind him to see if his story was correct. This day had been so confusing, he wasn't sure what was right anymore. He looked at the man standing in the coffin. "Now it's your turn."

"I cannot speak," the man replied quickly, and began to lie back into the coffin.

"I'm disappointed," Tifa said.

"Hearing your stories," the man said, "Has added upon me yet another sin. More nightmares shall come to me now, more than I previously had. My part in this required me to atone."

He had finished lying down.

"Now," he said, "Please leave."

He reached an arm up into the air. But this was not a normal arm, it seemed plated in what looked like bronze. But the arm was too thin to have armor over it, or even a bronze plating. It seemed as if the arm itself was bronze. He waved the arm and the coffin lid replaced itself over him.

All was quiet, the dust settled. Cloud, frustrated, ran to the coffin and grabbed the lid, he threw the lid off with tremendous force and the light wood hurtled across the room, landing flat against the wall. Dust flew everywhere and Yuffie coughed.

The tall man opened his red eyes and slid them over to look at Cloud. He seemed unaffected by Cloud's act of frustration.

"You're still here."

"At least tell us your name," Cloud said, calming himself.

The man sat up and reached his bronze arm to stroke the hair away from his eyes. "I was with... the Shinra Manufacturing Department in Administrative Research, otherwise known as the Turks. My name was Vincent Valentine."

"The Turks?!" Cloud was quite surprised.

"Formerly," Vincent said loudly, "of the Turks. I have no affiliation with Shinra now. I am nothing but a body. And you?"

"Former Shinra SOLDIER," Cloud said, "Cloud Strife."

"You were also with Shinra," Vincent said, reaching his right arm (which was inside a black sleeve and glove but otherwise normal arm) up and wiping his eye, "You must also, then, know Lucrecia."

Cloud looked into his memory, but did not recall a Lucrecia of any kind. The name did not even bring up a headache or an 'episode'. "Who?"

Vincent put his arm down in shock, "Lucrecia," he repeated plainly. Cloud shook his head, to which Vincent replied, "The woman who gave birth to Sephiroth."

"Gave birth?" Cloud asked, "But… isn't Jenova Sephiroth's mother?"

"That is not entirely untrue," Vincent said, "But Sephiroth was born from a beautiful woman. Her name was Lucrecia. She was an assistant to Professor Gast of the Jenova project. Beautiful Lucrecia."

"A human experiment?" Cloud asked.

"There was no way to stop it. I couldn't stop it. That is my sin. I let the one I loved, the one I respected most, face the worst."

"So the punishment was sleep?" Tifa asked.

"That's weird," Yuffie said, coughing a little from the dust.

Vincent lay back down and once again the coffin lid flew about the room and landed back on the top of the coffin.

"Leave me to sleep," Vincent said from within.

"But—" Aeris began.

"Forget it," Cloud said, "It's useless to try. He's not going to give us anything else."

They left the Vincent and his coffin alone, walking through the darkness towards the light of the chimneystack ahead. Night was falling and drops of rain fell through the chimneystack, hitting the ground. They dripped from the spiral staircase down onto the dirt.

"Wait!" came a voice behind them.

When they turned, the man in red had come out of the room, and he stood looking at them again, the cold intelligence glinting in his deep red eyes.

"If I go with you," he said, "will I meet Hojo?"

"We're going after Sephiroth," Cloud said, "and Hojo is too. I have no doubt of it."

"Very well," Vincent said, "I will follow you to Hojo, but allow me to make the kill. It is all I ask."

"That's fine," Cloud said, "I wasn't looking forward to killing him in any case."

"What makes you think we want ya?!" Barret asked, "Seems a lot of people nowadays keep latchin' on to us uninvited!" He shot a menacing glance at Yuffie and Cait Sith.

"Being a former Turk," Vincent said slowly, unaffected by Barret's bravado, "I may be of some use to you all. You know where Hojo is going, that helps me. I have a gun and know how to use it, that benefits all. We stop talking about this now."

Cloud was struck silent by Vincent's confidence – his assuredness that they would comply. He stood, thin and tall, in the cavernous underbelly of the Shinra mansion. He was waiting for them to start moving. Cloud was immediately impressed by the poise and presence of Vincent Valentine, and equally unimpressed by those same attributes. They headed for the staircase. Vincent walked behind them.

"There is a storm coming," his voice echoed behind the soft drumming sound of the rain hitting the wood.

"I know," Cloud said, "looks like it's already here."

Vincent jumped forward and glided smoothly in front of them, walking up the staircase with incredible speed, but it didn't seem like it. It seemed like a lazy stroll for him, but his long legs carried him quickly up the staircase. Cloud had to look up the chimneystack to see where the man in red was.

When Vincent arrived at the doorway that connected the staircase to the bedroom, he did not enter through. Instead, he jumped straight up, landing softly on the top of the wide open chimneystack. He jumped again and landed on the roof out of their sight.

His dexterity was incredible, he moved like air through water. _'Just like Sephiroth,'_ Cloud thought.

Vincent was on the roof now, his pointed boots walking neatly along the pointed crest of the shingled roof. When he arrived at the edge, he looked down at Nibelheim. Cloud and the others had met in the mansions' garden and were looking up at Vincent, who ignored them. Instead, he looked past Nibelheim, into the great Nibel Valley. There was a storm coming north, from the Valley of the Fallen Star. Purple lightning struck the valley in great thick pillars. Moments later the crackling sound of their electrical impact hit Vincent's ears.

He could hear again, his eyes saw light. His hair, which had been shaved bald when he was put inside the coffin, and had never known any other air, was delighted at the sensation of rain. His red cape was flowing in the wind behind him, and it made a great wap-wap-wap! in the wind. He felt full of life again.

Perhaps being woken from his nightmare was not a curse after all.


	74. Biggs' Recollection: Wedge

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 19**

**Biggs' Recollection: Wedge**

_'An avalanche is different from a landslide in that avalanches are made out of snow, not rocks. There's another, more important distinction, though. Landslides can be caused by earthquakes, rainfall and erosion, but an avalanche can start with a sound. A simple noise is all it takes to get that first small chunk of snow grinding down the slope, growing as it goes, collecting ice, rocks, trees, people, structures. Just a simple word._

_That was our philosophy when we left Cosmo Canyon. Barret said that Marlene's orphan cries were the noise, and he was that first small chunk of snow. He came through and swept Jessie and I up, and even though I fought him, and had more brains in my hand than he has in all, we were entrained for the long haul. And damnit, the Lifestream is worth fighting for. Worth dying for._

_That's what put me in the path of the avalanche. We expected to keep growing, on our pilgrimmage to Midgar. Barret was really excited about building up forces as we went, meeting people, inspiring them, galvanizing them. He never could articulate it, but I liked him for that._

_Anyway, Barret never got his army. We got to Midgar with only one addition._

_We had crossed the ocean on a passenger liner, we had stolen the tickets from three Shinra executives who were going to be returning from a holiday in Costa Del Sol. Costa Del Sol, it seemed, would be their permanent place of rest._

_I had learned to use a gun while we were trudging around the old ruins of Corel. The whole place had turned into a damned wasteland and there was a huge casino going up. I didn't know if it was a Shinra operation or not, but I found two guns at the prison there (we had stayed overnight in an old burnt down house). I first fired the guns at a prisoner who was attempting to mug us. He was three feet away and I had missed. Missed! When Barret and I had met, I had bragged… well, lied, about my immaculate aim, but in truth, I had never fired a gun before. The Canyon way was of peace._

_Now, though, I could shoot a wolf from thirty yards away, and had. I explained to Barret that I just needed to get used to my new guns. The truth never came out, although even now I'm not sure if they ever believed me._

_It was October when we left Junon, the boat had led us into upper Junon where we had taken the elevator down into the slums. It was a decent sort of place. Nothing like Nibelheim, but decent enough. I heard that Nibelheim had burnt down. I was in Cosmo Canyon when I heard the news. It happened about a year before Jessie and Barret arrived in the Canyon. Shinra had sent two SOLDIERs to help with a monster attack, but the SOLDIERs had turned and burnt down the whole city. All of my friends and relatives were dead. I hated Shinra as much as Jessie or Barret did. Shinra and SOLDIER had done the same to their hometowns, Corel and Gongaga._

_After mulling around in the slums for a while, we went south. There was no way to cross the mountains in a day, and we didn't have any sort of camping gear. The nights were too hot here still, we needed somewhere cool to spend the night._

_Well, we found it. A small mountain with a large blue reactor and a Condor on top. We approached it and greeted a bloke sitting idly on a boulder. Ahh Wedge. I'll never forget the first time I saw him. I wondered how someone so immensely fat could climb all the way on top of that boulder!_

"_We've been fighting the Shinra on this battlefield for a long time," Wedge said, "We're still settled in for a long war with them. Could you spare some time, and help us fight?"_

"_Hell yes!" we all shouted in unison._

"_Great! __Go on inside, and meet the folks. Might be hard there, sir, with your gun-arm and whatnot. It's all ropes inside."_

"_It's nothin'" Barret said, and walked along. Propping Marlene on his shoulders, Barret went first. Me and Jessie stayed at the bottom of the rope._

"_Seems a might trusting, don't he?" Jessie asked._

"_Well, I suppose they are really hurting for help," I explained, always full of wisdom. But recently, I had begun to speak like Barret and Jessie, after spending so much time with them, they were beginning to rub off on me._

_He climbed, and we climbed, and when we reached the top of the shaft we were in a pub. It was filled with people. A man stumbled towards us._

"_Welcome to Fort Condor!" he said, "we are celebrating our first victory against them tonight! We made sure those Shinra bastards don't step one foot inside our reactor, or our town! __I'm Boris Allworth, General of the Condor Resistance!"_

"_I'm Barret," said the leader, "and this here is Jessie an Biggs."_

"_Pleased to meet you!" Boris laughed, "but I'm sorry we don't really need your help! Come have a drink with us anyway!"_

_Soon after, Wedge came upstairs and we learned that he was Boris's brother. They __treated us all to an ale that tasted like dirt. Wedge talked of Fort Condor, its history and how Shinra had put a garrison at the base of the mountain. The garrison had continued to try and invade, but those in the Fort had driven them back every time. And earlier this day, they had charged full force. Wedge had been lollygagging away from his post and saw it coming._

_Those fighting on the side of the Fort had killed every one of 'em with almost no casualties. It would be a long time before Shinra even noticed an operation as small as this didn't have a garrison around._

_We stayed in Fort Condor the night, and that night, Wedge and I stayed up talking._

"_My real dreams," Wedge said, "are to be rich an famous one day. Famous for saving the world from Shinra. Not just Fort Condor, but the whole world. AVALANCHE is just the kind of thing I wanna do. I understand that you guys are your thing, but—"_

"_Not really," I said._

_Wedge gave me a hopeful look._

"_Barret's running this operation," I explained, "But if you're asking me, we need all the help we can get. You seem to be a handy lookout, without you, this town would have been destroyed by now. You ought to ask him if you should join."_

_Wedge asked the next morning._

"_Sure y'can!" Barret slapped Wedge on the back with his remaining arm, "We're in need of a lookout anyhow. You sure you wanna leave Fort Condor?"_

"_They'll be fine without me," Wedge said, "My little brother can take over guarding the stone. Besides, your cause is more important."_

"_Well," Barret smiled, "It's our cause now. Can you shoot a gun?"_

_Wedge's face dropped slightly, "A little. But I'm a great lookout and can withstand torture. This one time I got stabbed almost in half, it took a phoenix down in order to heal me, and that didn't come for a week."_

"_Well," Barret said, "You'll learn to use a gun as we go, that's what Biggs did."_

"_Very funny," I said weakly, and Jessie rolled her eyes. _

"_I'm going to grab a PHS sos that I can stay in contact with the Fort," Wedge said._

"_What's a PHS?" Barret asked._

"_Man, what rock were you living under?" Wedge laughed, "PHS is a phone. A personal handheld system that allows you to talk with people all across the world."_

_I remember getting mine. A large black box with a number pad on it, and a great thick antenna out of the top. We each got one, but I don't even remember if we ever used them._

"_Awright," Barret said, "I'll remember that. We can call in to see if Fort Condors doin fine or what. An' if it's ever in a pinch, we'll come kick some Shinra ass, together."_

"_Together," Wedge smiled.'_


	75. Book 3: Mount Nibel

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 20**

**Mount Nibel**

The Nibel Mountain Range looked the same to Tifa as they had five years ago. They were barren, grey, and dead. The mako reactor sat atop the peak of Mount Nibel, the highest point above the mist.

They walked up the old bridge, and she felt a little anxiety going up it. The bridge was prone to collapsing, and she remembered it happening on more than one occasion. She remembered the 'Nibelheim Incident' of five years ago clearer than anyone, most definitely Cloud. At times, she wondered if she should have been the one to tell them. When Cloud had described the bridge collapsing, he had stuttered and clutched his head. Tifa remembered, but to interject during his story would have jeopardized her entire reason for staying with Cloud.

There was something not right about him. Something, and she needed to find out what. Why he remembered things the way that he had, why he had shown up in Midgar five years after Sephiroth's supposed death. Why he was sick, injured, and at a total loss for memories. And then, the changes that he made after his recovery. The completely different person he had become.

He was now obsessed with finding Sephiroth, and Tifa did not know why.

Vincent was silent. He was so tall, he loomed over the once monstrous Barret, and his red cape made him seem even bigger, as it flowed along behind him.

"So what's your deal?" asked Yuffie.

"I have no deal," Vincent said coldly, "I only wish to find Sephiroth and Hojo, and to end this. Then, I will return to sleep."

'_He sounds like me_,' Cloud thought_, 'I don't like it_.'

"Man," Barret said, "This group is a lively bunch."

"I assume you're talking about Cloud, Vincent and I?" Nanaki asked.

"Yeah, you three," Barret said, "Hey, why don't you walk ten feet behind us an' complain the rest of the trip, huh?"

"Yeah!" Yuffie stuck out her tongue, "You big whiners."

Cait Sith's giant mog bounded up the bridge, and every time he bounced, the bridge would creak.

"Must you ride that giant mog?" asked Nanaki.

"What would you rather I do?" Cait Sith called back, "Ride on top of YOU?!"

"You are capable of walking, are you not?" Nanaki asked.

"Well, why walk when I can order Mog around?" Cait Sith laughed.

"A toy," Vincent said quietly, "Riding another toy. It is most displeasing."

Cloud silently agreed. There was something crooked about Cait Sith. Perhaps it was his programming, after all, any robot working in a casino has about as much sincerity as a Shinra car salesman. The fact that he was following them around was unsettling. Just to find out what his fortune would hold.

"There you go again," Barret laughed, "Go be dark and mysterious somewhere else."

"Why?!" Cloud asked, arriving at the top of the bridge, "Why are you so intolerant, Barret?"

"Look who's talking," Cait Sith muttered.

"Because!" Barret said sharply, turning around to face him. His words echoed throughout the mountain regions below. "I don't like all this talk of what's displeasin'! We in a creepy ass part of the world, with a creepy ass town and a mako reactor to boot. Now mebbe I jes wanna get this over with so I can see Marlene again, so jes don't waste my time by talkin 'bout nothin!"

Cait Sith, who stood atop Mog and behind Barret, moved. Cloud only caught it out of the corner of his eye, but it seemed like a twitch. A mechanical error of some sort. Cait Sith returned the look and said, "Can we hurry, please? The cold air is making my joints freeze up."

"Good," Barret growled, "Mebbe you'll shut down."

"Hey, now!" the cat said, "What did I do to you?"

"Nothin," Barret coughed, and walked ahead.

Aeris moved up to Cloud, "He seems distant," she said, "he's been this way since we got to Corel. Maybe he just needs some time to be alone and to think about his past."

"I guess that's it," Cloud said, "We'll let him. He's got a lot on his shoulders."

"Barret wasn't always like this," Tifa smiled, "When he came to Midgar last month – he was happy to let anyone join his cause. I think that changed the day… ha ha… the day he met you, Cloud."

Cloud huffed and shrugged his shoulders.

"He's right about this region, though," Tifa said, "We should hurry out of here. The longer the reactor works, the more the local animals begin to attack."

They moved after Barret, who was standing in front of the door to the mako reactor.

"Damn," he said, "Biggs, Wedge, 'n Jessie," he muttered, "They're dead, an' for what? What did I lead them into? Biggs coulda stayed at Cosmo Canyon, an' Jessie too. Wedge coulda been happy, savin' Fort Condor. An' you, Cloud. You'da been long gone if I hadn't hired you on."

"Don't blame yourself, Barret," Tifa said, "Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. They came of their own volition. And Cloud, well, I forced you to hire him. Don't blame yourself."

Cloud stared up at the reactor. He hadn't been listening, which was beneficial for Tifa. He stared at the green glow from within.

Aeris stepped up beside him. "Did you want to go in?" she asked.

Cloud looked into her eyes. Her loving green eyes. Staring into them, he felt the force from the mako reactor slipping away.

"No," he shook his head, "I'd rather not. Sephiroth isn't in there, I feel it."

"So you can feel Sephiroth now?" Yuffie asked.

Cloud thought for a moment, "It's not a sixth sense," he said, "I can just… it's just a feeling I get when he's around. A foreboding. I felt it in the Shinra tower, and I felt it on the Shinra boat. I also felt it in Nibelheim, but not just from him, from everyone of those hooded men."

"Let's go," Barret said.

They continued down Mount Nibel and into a large cave.

"Wait," Tifa said, "I want to see something."

Cloud knew what she wanted to see. There was a mako fountain in the Nibel Mountains, right near the reactor. They had visited there with Sephiroth five years ago.

Tifa ran off into a cave mouth and Cloud followed. After a short tunnel, they arrived in the chamber.

The mako fountain had dried up. It had once been a beautiful spot, filled with dancing lights and the roots of trees. The roots had long since turned to ash, and the natural materia lay like a chipped glass rock on the ground, devoid of life. The dancing lights that sent visual echoes around the cavern were gone, replaced with a dim, dreary grey that filled the cave.

"This is so… desolate," Cloud said upon reaching the cavern.

"You remember it," Tifa said, "You remember it how it was, don't you Cloud?"

"Of course I do, Tifa," Cloud assured her, "Five years ago, we passed through here. Sephiroth talked about materia. About the knowledge of the Cetra. Before… before he went insane."

"It seems strange," she said, putting her hand to her mouth, as if to shut herself up, "It's nothing, let's go back."

There was a crashing noise behind them and they turned to look. In the cave from where they had come there seemed to be an enormous insect of some sort. Propped up on six legs, its head was made of jagged spires of exoskeleton, miring any traces of facial features.

"What the hell is that?!" Cait Sith cried.

Cloud remembered the stories. His mother had told him stories as a child about the dragons in the Nibel Mountains, how they were at war with creatures called materia keepers. Since dragons could be shrugged off to myth, Cloud had always assumed that indeed, giant materia keepers were also fabrications of fantasy.

Apparently not.

Cloud unsheathed his sword. Aeris readied her staff from its invisible pocket behind her. Barret looked to Cloud and asked, "Are we killing it?"

"This thing is legendary," Cloud commented, "A worthy foe for dragons."

"I feel kinda like a dragon right now," Barret said, "Should I spit some fire at this guy or not?"

"There is nothing to gain from this fight," Vincent said, "This creature is not evil, nor good."

"Yeah, but it's big and scary," Yuffie readied her shuriken, "And probably has some awesome magic I can steal from it."

The materia keeper's faceless, pointed head spun and looked at Yuffie, sensing her magic stones. "Crap," uttered the young woman.

The great spindly legs stabbed into the brittle roots left in the withered cavern. With loud thuds and crunching of the paper-thin wood, the materia keeper was charging towards Yuffie.

"The keeper comes!" Vincent shouted, drawing a pistol from a holster on his thigh. He fired at the beast – real bullets, unlike Barret's blood bullets – and they merely chipped away at the armour on the leg. Barret began firing. Yuffie, unlike herself, stayed absolutely still – in shock from watching the enormous monster charge towards her.

Cloud closed his eyes and concentrated his energy on the red amulet at his side.

He was floating in the ether plane. Shiva appeared to him in an apparition.

"What do you seek?" she asked.

'_This creature is not evil,'_ Cloud thought, _'so Ramuh is of no use to me.'_

"Oh, Ramuh is so temperamental, which befits a storm god. You want to destroy the materia keeper? As long as you can summon me I will do my best."

Cloud knew his magical prowess was not enough to keep Shiva for more than a few seconds, but he hoped that her attack would be powerful enough.

They returned and Cloud concentrated on giving Shiva orders. _'Attack the materia keeper. Attack the materia keeper.'_

She appeared encased in ice, exploding out and hovering before the monster. In her wand she gathered diamond dust and tossed icicles at the creature. They stabbed through the hard shell-armour and pierced his body. Cloud's concentration waned and Shiva disappeared in a flash, leaving behind falling slowflakes as a footprint in the air.

The materia keeper had stopped moving, but the magic icicles melted within seconds, flowing over the materia keeper's armour like healing water. The chips in the armour regenerated.

"What?" Tifa asked.

"Magic will only heal it!" Vincent called, "That is why dragons cannot kill them."

Vincent spoke as if dragons actually existed, but Cloud had no time to laugh about that as the materia keeper pointed its head at him and began to charge.

"He senses our materia!" Vincent shouted over Barret's gunfire. "We must rid ourselves—" His sentence was cut short as one of the materia keepers legs stabbed through his body and nailed him to a nearby rock wall. Vincent, surprisingly, was still alive despite the fact that he had just been skewered. The materia keeper removed its leg from Vincent's innards and he collapsed to the floor. The beast turned back to Cloud and continued to charge. Cloud readied his sword.

Nobody noticed Vincent rise to his feet, but they did notice when he began to transform. Even the materia keeper paused for a moment as Vincent's body began to shake and pulse. He was giving off such magical energy that Cloud could feel numerous ethereal tugs every second. The materia keeper turned to Vincent.

Shaking, Vincent put his hands to his head. His black hair began to grey and then turn silver white. Cloud feared for a moment that Vincent was transforming into Sephiroth – that his journey with them had been a trick. That Vincent was Sephiroth or Jenova transformed and now that they were occupied with an impossible monster, that he would take this opportunity to strike them down.

But no… Sephiroth didn't have horns. Two great black horns grew forth from behind his pale white hair as his skin turned to a dark shade of blue. He grew a snout lined with ferocious teeth and roared louder and shriller than anything Nanaki could have uttered. The clips on his cape popped apart and it fell to the floor. He was bursting out of his clothing – the buckles and belts on his black clothing relented to the growing blue fur of Vincent's increasing body size; but he wasn't Vincent anymore. He was unlike anything Cloud had ever seen or heard of before, a beast from the galions of hell. It stood on two feet with enormous claws for hands, naked and covered from head to toe in fur, with a great white mane leading from the top of its head all the way down the spine.

"What the fuck?" Barret was the only one bold enough to utter anything at that moment.

The beast roared in fury in Vincent's place, clutching at his stomach where the wound had miraculously healed during the transformation. The materia keeper charged towards the galion beast, whose hands were alit now with flame. With a flick of the wrist, the galion beast hurled balls of fire towards the materia keeper. The magical fire exploded on impact, having no effect. It was as if the beast had ignored Vincent's earlier warning - as if it was a seperate entity entirely, with no recollection of who Vincent was. Seeing his magic prove frivolous, the galion beast immediately lunged at the crawling monster, clawing and gnashing with all of his might.

"Yeah! Get 'em!" Cait Sith shouted through the megaphone, standing with Aeris in the far corner of the room. Aeris was at the ready with her healing materia, positive that her staff would have no effect on the armour.

As the galion beast tore away at the armour on the materia keeper's back, melee attacks continued from the party. Cloud's sword chipped away at the armour and the legs.

"I'll play decoy!" Yuffie volunteered almost cheerily.

"Don't get cocky!" Barret said.

Yuffie's float materia was activated with every leap she made – the small amount of magical exertion kept the materia keeper's attention focused on her. It followed its sense of magic blindly around the cavern, knocking the dead materia away from its resting place.

"Barret, how nice of you!" Yuffie shouted as she dodged an oncoming leg. The leg fell victim to Tifa's powerful kick. Tifa's spiked boot pierced the armor and yellow blood leaked from the hole. "I didn't know you cared so much," Yuffie continued, "I'm flattered!"

The berserk galion beast roared as it tore away a large chunk of armour and tore away at the insides with his snout. The materia keeper thrashed its head, sensing the magical presence on its back.

Yuffie sensed the opportunity and leapt onto the back with the galion beast who growled at her and knocked her off. Surprised, Yuffie couldn't catch herself in time and landed on her head. The few seconds that she spent recovering were seconds that the materia keeper had to crawl over to her and thrust its jagged, pointy head towards hers. Barret's constant bullets knocked the head just far enough as to tear through Yuffie's cheek and harmlessly to the ground. Yuffie rolled out of the way and stood up, looking at Barret with surprise. She clutched her mouth and waved at Aeris – her bleeding ceased before it could drip on her ornamental arm-piece.

Nanaki saw the galion beast's attack on Yuffie. He leapt towards the beast to counterattack but with a flick of his wrist the blue furry creature threw a fireball at Nanaki who collided with it mid-air and was thrown back against a wall.

Drilling into the innards of the materia keeper, the galion beast was drenched in the yellow goo. One of the legs collapsed due to a torn muscle. Cloud leapt onto the back to break away more of the armour. The galion beast was too occupied with crawling inside the monster to notice Cloud less than a metre away. The buster sword drove through the materia keeper's back and it was completely immobilized and it crashed to the ground. Cloud leapt off and joined up with the rest of the group.

"Aeris, are you all right?"

"Is she all right?" Yuffie cried, "I played bait for that long and you ask little miss back row if she's all right? Give me a break here!"

"Is it dead?" Tifa asked.

Cloud looked at the faceless head. "If it isn't, we'll put it out of its misery. Hard to tell from here, though."

Barret was bemused. "Can we please talk about what the fuck just happened with Vincent? Like how he transformed into a monster and then dug a home for himself inside another monster?"

"I guess we'll find out when it comes out."

Nanaki picked himself up, "Classify it as a threat. It attacked Yuffie and I – just because it helped destroy the bigger creature doesn't mean that we're safe."

"We can all take it," Barret boasted.

A large crunching sound was heard inside the head and the materia keeper twitched, falling limp for a final time.

"Probably dead now," Yuffie shrugged.

Slowly but surely, the galion beast crawled out from the hole in the armour. His movement was slowed due to the fact that he was covered in yellow innards. Like a baby from the womb he flopped onto the ground, exhausted. Cloud readied his sword and they stepped closer to it. By the time they got to it, it was well on its way to morphing back into Vincent. The blue fur turned back into ghostly pale skin – the beady red eyes turned into deep, human eyes – still a hue of red. He lay naked on the ashes – covered in yellow glop. His eyes were open but he didn't seem to be conscious. After a moment, he sat up and the party backed away, startled.

"What happened?" Vincent looked around, at himself and at the body of the materia keeper. He looked over his naked body, noticing it. He was covered in scars, from his neck down to his feet. Incision markings – a few metallic implants to keep wounds from splitting. His left arm – which was clearly turned to bronze, caused the veins in his left chest to turn to black. He looked over his body in wonderment, clutching his left hand as if to make sure it worked. He looked over at the party members. He examined their faces.

Vincent stood up and looked for his clothes – they were in a pile besides a small puddle of blood from his wound. He walked silently over to them and tried to shake off as much yellow goo as he could before slipping back into them.

"Vincent?" Cloud asked, "Do you want to explain what happened just then?"

"I don't remember," Vincent said darkly, discovering the buckles on his clothing. He looked at them curiously, as if he had never seen them before, "I'm assuming that I went berserk and killed our foe. Don't ask me to apologize for getting naked – I don't remember it."

"I guess you don't want to apologize for attacking Yuffie and Nanaki either," Aeris asked.

"They should have known better than to attack a berserk man."

"Oh but you weren't a man at that point," Barret called, "You were a big goddamn monster."

Vincent finished clipping on his cape and paused for a moment, searching Barret's eyes. His eyebrows furrowed, it was obvious he was irritated at the news. After a long while of staring, he responded by tossing his arm back, sending his cape flapping behind him. He began to walk back towards the exit.

"Hey!" Cloud yelled, running up to him, "You don't just get to do that! There's no 'oops forget it.' When you began to come with us you didn't tell us that at any moment you could transform into a monster and start attacking everything. What the hell are you? How can I be sure that you won't kill us all when we're not expecting it?"

"I am unsure of what I am," Vincent turned to him, "but I am not the one in this party that you should be worried about. If you want me to theorize, fine. Due to experiments put on me, there is now a monster living inside of me who feels rather protective of me and would stop at nothing to kill any threats to its host. That includes meddlesome aid from children. If I am unprovoked, you should be safe. If he should return, stay out of his way. I am continuing out of these mountains. If you wish me to join you, then you would be wise to do the same."

Cloud sighed and followed Vincent.

"Oh damnit," Barret began after him, "Cloud, I'm tired of this shit. What are you building, an army? Have you noticed a trend in the folks we've picked up since Midgar? Mebbe the fact that they're a bunch of dangerous wildcards?"

"Not I!" said the cat.

"Shu'up! I wasn't talkin' to you!"

"Barret!" Tifa scorned, "What happened to you? What happened to the AVALANCHE credo, of whoever has the same cause has a home with us?"

Barret stopped for a moment, a glimmer of doubt in his voice. "That was crushed with our base, Tifa! Or did you forget? Most of AVALANCHE – the real AVALANCHE – ain't here no more! The more people you love, the more people die on you. Can't go relyin' on people to save your ass, neither. They'll just turn into monsters or snicker behind yo back."

"If it wasn't for Yuffie or Vincent we wouldn't have survived this fight!" Aeris pleaded, "We all help each other, Barret. And we're all here to help you if you need it—"

"Yeah well I don't need it. I'm here to save the Planet, not to have tea and group therapy... Awright lets go."

Barret followed after Vincent.

"What, that's it?" Yuffie asked, "We just continue on? I thought you hated us."

"I do," Barret called back, "S'why I let off so much steam. Now let's go off an' save the Planet so I can get the hell away from you."

"Guess he did need group therapy," Aeris smirked and they all followed after.


	76. Wedge's Recollection: Prelude

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 21**

**Wedge's Recollection: Prelude**

_Ouch. That fall really took the wind out of me... I'm dying. I'll be the first to die, the first AVALANCHE casualty. Biggs, Jessie, Barret. Cloud__ and Tifa too, although they were new additions, but I always considered them part of the team. Barret, Biggs and Jessie will stop the bomb, I know they will. There's too much at stake. It's all right if I die, if it'll save the Planet. Even if I never see __Tooth Rock again. Never climb those ropes, whoo boy that was a workout. Watching the stars between the feathers of the condor. I'll… really miss it. I remember when AVLANCHE was based in Fort Condor. After I signed on, Barret an' Biggs and Jessie all stayed for a month training me up. And me, as it turned out, I was very handy with small explosives like grenades and the like._

_But, course, I wasn't a computer genius like Jessie, so they didn't involve me with any of the big bombs. It was okay though, my job was just as important. Anything I could do to help save the Planet. And become rich and famous along the way!_

_We had been happy at Fort Condor, and I didn't know why we had to leave when winter was just starting. But, Barret was the leader and he wanted to be in Midgar in time for his birthday. It was December now, and a bit biting yes indeed. We had moved through the Bottleneck Pass without any trouble, though, the wind wasn't as harsh as I thought it would be._

_The anxiety was beginning to get to me. I had heard wonderful stories about the floating metropolis, how eight cities were propped fifty metres above ground. How, at night, the skies light up green and yellow, and the colours dance. How, if you lived there, you were safe from everyone, everything the world could throw at you._

_When they came around the pass, the wind slowed and I looked upon the city._

_I looked at it for a moment as they walked. It didn't seem like fifty metres high. Maybe I didn't know what fifty metres was, but I expected it to be higher up than that._

_It was day, but the sky reflected the lights, green and yellow, and moving spotlights from the middle._

"_Will you look at that," Biggs said, "It's hideous!"_

"_Damn," Barret gasped, "It's huge!"_

"_Is that fifty metres?" I asked, "It doesn't quite look like fifty metres."_

"_What is that giant white thing in the middle?" Jessie asked, "It looks like a giant robot."_

"_That must be the Shinra tower," I said, "Every Shinra bigwig works there, and the president himself lives there."_

"_Well, now," Barret said, "I guess it's time we paid him a visit!"_

"_Let's be rational, for once," Biggs said, "For one thing, the Shinra tower is heavily guarded by roboguards, and MPs, and SOLDIERs are wandering about all the time."_

"_SOLDIER?!" Jessie asked, fear filling her eyes. Jessie knew the stories like I did. SOLDIERs were ruthless. Five years ago, two SOLDIERs burned down the city of Nibelheim, where Biggs is from, and then a year later they burned down Corel, where Barret's from. A couple of SOLDIERs attacked Fort Condor a before that and killed a few distant relations along with all the mercenaries we hired. As soon as they won though, they up and left so we took back the fort within a week. But the fact of the matter was, SOLDIERs were bad news._

"_You thought we wouldn't run into any?" Biggs asked, a crooked smile spreading across his face, "We've all had our run-ins with SOLDIER. Hell, Sephiroth alone could have killed us all were he alive. If we meet a member of SOLDIER, you can bet your britches we'll be dead shortly after."_

"_I doubt that," Barret said, "No sword wielding wuss can block bullets that never run out! We meet a SOLDIER, I'll show him who's the damn boss, right Marlene?"_

"_Right!" Marlene said, perched atop her father's shoulder._

_By the time they reached the gates, I looked up at the plate. Now it looked more like fifty metres, hanging above me and all. I wondered if someone was walking directly above me, putting their foot down at the same time. A cute thought, and a thought I had often in the few weeks I spent living here._

_We entered Sector 7._

_The inside of Midgar was not as glamorous as the outside. There were sick children on ever corner, if you could call what we were walking on streets. It was just more ground, a path leading through piles and piles of garbage._

"_Shinra built the city so high," Barret started, "So they could shove their garbage underneath. Jes' through it away and not think about it. After a while, they started doin' that with people, too. That's how the slums were born."_

"_Eight cities in one place," Jessie said, "do they have names?"_

"_Jes' numbered sectors," Barret said, "Why bother keeping names when they all in a circle like this?"_

"_I think I need a drink," Jessie moaned._

_We__ walked into the nearest bar we could find. Marlene ducked to avoid hitting the top of the doorway. When we were inside, Barret put her down._

_I couldn't stop staring at the ceiling fans. Fort Condor was on top of a mountain, and we never needed fans. I could feel the cold air rushing down towards him from the fans. It was strange._

_The bar was empty, for the most part. A few customers sitting at the table lulling over their drinks. A pinball machine was in the corner, out of order. Typical._

_I sat down. "Do they have a menu?" I asked._

"_Dunno," Barret said, "I don't see anyone at the bar."_

"_BARKEEP!" sloshed the man across the pub, "BARKEEP!"_

"_Yes?" came a soft, woman's voice. It sounded almost like my mum, who had died of the flu several years ago. Haha, it's silly to think that now, because, once I got to know her, Tifa isn't anything like a mother._

_She came down the stairs behind the pinball machine. She wasn't nearly as chubby as my mum, but the size of her chest fit the bill. She wore all black, a sleeveless jacket and a train-like cape that began at her waist, revealing her long legs and tight black shorts._

"_Sober shot?" asked the man._

"_We don't sell those here," she said, crossing her arms. She had reached the bottom of the stairs and moved behind the bar._

"_Why the fuck not?!" asked the man._

"_Hey!" I shouted, "Language, please. There are children present."_

"_Fuck!" Marlene said happily. Barret did not seem to mind. But that was how they are, Marlene doesn't get really good parenting. Tifa is no mum, and Barret's occupied with his war. It's sad, seeing a little kiddy grow up like that. But she stays sweet so I don't mind._

_In response to my warning, the man stood up and reached into his belt. He pulled out a dagger and lumbered towards me all angry-like._

"_Don't you dare tell me what to do!"_

_Suddenly, there was a horrible squishing sound, like a slab of meat being thrown against a wall. There was a blur in front of the man and he was on the ground._

_The barmaiden stood where he had just fallen. She lowered her leg, which had just kicked the man in the face. It had happened so fast, I barely had time to realize that this was the same woman who, seconds before, was behind the counter._

_She turned and in her hands were five menus._

"_Sorry about that," she said, "Looks like I'm not getting tipped today."_

"_Thank you," I said, "Wow, that was…"_

_She looked at me. She had brown eyes like my mum. I liked her._

"_It was what you need to survive down here," she said, putting the menus down at the table. "What I can't figure out, is why you five would want to come to Midgar in the first place."_

"_How do you know we came here?" Barret asked, "How do you know we ain't residents?"_

"_You smell like fresh air," the barmaiden said, "Enjoy it while you can. I'm Tiffany, welcome to my bar, Seventh Heaven."_

"_Tiffany, eh?" Barret asked._

"_Well, most people just call me Tifa. Do you need a minute to decide?"_

"_What do you recommend (mum)?" I asked._

"_I make a pretty mean steak, I can't argue with that. You'll love it I know."_

_I nodded quickly. As it turns out, she was so right._

"_Awright," Barret smiled, "Steaks all around!"_

_Tifa brought us some steaks and began to wash glasses behind the bar. She watched the television, a report on high economics or something. I took a bite._

_It was the best thing I had ever tasted. My mum couldn't even cook this good, although, what can you get when you live in Fort Condor, huh? Wild zemezelets. The plate was filled with food, the steak was huge, and there were mashed potatoes, and chopped green beans. I'd be a lot skinnier now if those steaks hadn't been so good. But hey, if I'm gonna die now, I don't regret anything._

_And then she brought us ale._

"_It's local," Tifa said, "To give you a taste of what this place is like. Remember, it's not too late to turn back just yet. You could always leave here, go back home."_

"_Got no home to go to," Barret said, biting his steak._

_Tifa was silent for a moment, "Yeah, I know how you feel."_

"_I can't even go back to Nibelheim," Biggs said, "It burned down shortly after I left."_

"_You lived in Nibelheim?" Tifa asked._

"_Yeah," Biggs said, "Hey, wait a minute. Your name is Tifa? Tifa Lockheart?"_

"_Yes, that's me!" Tifa said, "I'm sorry, I don't recall your name."_

"_I'm Biggs," he smiled, "I lived next to Augustus Fawhler. It's okay if ya don't remember me, hell, I don't remember anyone from that town. A hundred boys who never noticed each other. But you, Tifa. You were famous! The mayors daughter. Hey, what happened to you?"_

_Tifa grabbed a stool and sat down at the table._

"_I lived in Nibelheim until Sephiroth burned it down," she said, "I think I was the only survivor, but Sephiroth cut me up bad. I was in a coma for a while, but then I came here, I was healed fully and now I own this bar."_

"_You own the bar?" I asked, "How did you manage that?"_

"_Surviving, I guess," Tifa said, "It's not easy in the slums, what with Shinra raining garbage down on us."_

"_You got a mad-on for the Shinra?" Barret asked._

"_SOLDIER burned down my hometown," Tifa said, looking at him, "And I've been living in the slums ever since. It's hard to like Shinra down here."_

"_We're gonna be rebels," I said, "We're planning on fighting back."_

_Tifa looked at me, and so did everyone else. I guess I was too loud about it._

"_That kind of talk," Tifa said, "Is dangerous. Be wise who you say that to. Shinra doesn't care about our livelihood, but they know that we are right underneath their perfect world. They care about silencing us more than helping us. I'm in."_

"_I beg your pardon?" Biggs asked._

_Tifa turned the lights off and put the closed sign up. She walked towards the pinball machine._

"_Let's talk somewhere safer."_


	77. Book 3: The Captain

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 22**

**The Captain**

The skies were open and blue, and there was some sort of green metal rod sticking out of the ground a kilometre ahead. The party of eight walked toward it. Sephiroth said he was going north past the mountains, and that was where they were.

A day had passed since the Nibel Mountains – they missed their buggy terribly – especially Cait Sith who had to endure a night of rainfall as the humans and Nanaki slept in tents. By morning, however, the tents had filled with water so everyone was just as upset as the robot cat which spent the majority of the morning shaking water off of Mog.

As they approached the green spire they noticed three smaller green rods encircling the big one in the centre. It didn't take Cait Sith to recognize it. "That's a rocket!" he shouted, "We have rocket games all over Wonder Square! This one sure looks old though."

Indeed, the rocket was green from oxidized bronze and it leaned precariously towards the east – the gantries were far apart as if the rocket was frozen in diagonal launching sequence. Below, a small collection of wooden houses sat in the afternoon shade of the rocket's slender shadow.

"There's no welcoming sign here," Aeris noted, "does that mean this town doesn't have a name?"

"It's called Rocket Town, commonly," Yuffie explained, "dumb name, dumb town. Yep, land of the old and the bored. On the upside, they have a materia shop which might be useful to you."

"But I suppose someone as experienced and talented as you has no need for such things," Nanaki joked.

"Spot on, Nanaki my friend," Yuffie smiled.

"Why would Sephiroth want to come here?" Cloud walked up to an elderly gentleman who was sitting on his porch. "Hi. Can you tell me about this town?"

"You'd better ask the Captain," said the gentleman, "He's the one in charge of it."

"Captain?" Cloud asked.

"The Captain was a pilot when Shinra was still interested in their space program. He was going to be the world's first astronaut, but there was an accident. Ever since then, he's been wasting his life away, dreaming about going into outer space."

"Have you seen a man in a black cloak?" Cloud asked.

"Nope, don't know anything about that."

'_Perhaps this captain might,'_ Cloud thought.

"Have you seen the Captain today?"

"Can't say I have," the gentleman said, "He's either locked himself in that stupid rocket, or he's at home in that house over there."

Cloud and the others looked towards where the gentleman was pointing. It was not so much the house they looked at, but what was behind it.

There was a large backyard, fenced off, and inside was an airplane.

It was painted pink, at least, that was the only noticeable feature about it from this distance. Cloud and the other seven walked over to the fence and he examined it.

The plane was painted delicate shades of pink and blue, and it had a propeller on the end of each wing. The wings were the largest part of the plane, for only one person could fit inside. Inside was a moot point – the cockpit was as deep as a kayak, so that the pilot could feel the wind on his each wing, painted neatly was a logo with the words Tiny Bronco written on it.

A bespectacled woman came into the backyard and noticed the eight figures looking at the Tiny Bronco.

"Um.. may I help you?" she asked.

Cloud shrugged, "We're just looking at it."

The woman said, "If you would like to use it, please ask the Captain. I think he's in the rocket. I'm Shera, what are your names?"

"Cloud," he said.

"Aeris."

"Tifa."

"Barret."

"…Vincent."

"Nanaki."

"Hi! I'm Yuffie!"

"Cait Sith."

"Hmm," Shera said with some disappointment, "So you're not with the Shinra. I thought the approval for the reopening of the space program came."

"Sorry?" was the only thing Cloud could think of replying with.

"President Rufus is scheduled to come here," Shera said, "the Captain's been so restless all morning. Well, talk to the Captain and maybe he'll lend you the plane. Have a nice day."

Shera returned to the house.

"Rufus?!" Cloud turned to the party, half-expecting an explanation from someone. Yuffie, Barret, Vincent, or even Cait Sith (however unlikely that might have been.) They looked back, just as dumbfounded as he.

They headed north towards the rocket, traversing platforms over huge wires and fuel pipes. To get to the door, they had to climb a ladder leading all the way up. Cloud climbed alone after hearing various excuses from the rest of the party. Barret and Nanaki were too weary to climb up a ladder, especially with their climbing impairments. Mog could not bound up the ladder, and Aeris and Tifa did not want to climb up a ladder while the boys were down there looking up at them. Vincent stood to the side with a brooding indifference so Cloud climbed alone. When he reached the top, he entered.

As soon as he entered he saw a man, with graying hair and a flight jacket on. He was bent over, doing mechanics on his rocket.

"Who are you?" the man asked, turning around. Hanging loosely out of his mouth was a cigarette, and it flopped about whenever he spoke. Atop his head he wore goggles that also held his pack of cigarettes to his head.

The Captain exhaled smoke into Cloud's face and Cloud tried not to lose his higher ground.

"I heard the Captain was here," Cloud said.

"Captain? I'm the Captain!" the man said, smiling, the burning end of his cigarette flying up, then down, and back up again, the ash breaking off into the air and floating towards the ground. "The name is Cid, but everyone calls me Captain, though. What do you want?"

"Tell me about this rocket," Cloud said. He needed to humor the Captain, so he thought.

Cid smiled and puffed on his cigarette. He turned back to his work and explained.

"You know Shinra developed a lot of technological gadgets during that meaningless war with Wutai, right? Well, they came up with a rocket engine. There was so much excitement about the thought of going into outer space – could you pass me that screwdriver? No, the one with the x-shape. Thank you. So Shinra put a major budget into the space program and made prototype after prototype. Finally, they completed Shinra No. 26. They chose the best pilot in Shinra – no, in the world – me. I mean, come on."

Cloud rolled his eyes.

Cid became solemn almost, his cigarette no longer bouncing up and down happily between his nose and his chin. It drooped down and he said, "We got to the day of the launch, and everything was goin' so well. But because of that dumb-ass Shera, the launch got messed up. After that, Shinra got all anal about everything. They nixed the space program, after they had told me that 'The Future is Space Exploration.' Lies of the Shinra. Goddamn them. They decided it was all over when they capitalized on mako energy. They didn't even so much as look at space exploration after that. Money, moola, dinero! My dream was nothing but a financial number for them. Just look at this busted rocket. I was supposed to be the first man in space with this. And every day, it tilts a little bit more. At this rate, I don't know which'll come first: the thing falling down or me getting outta here. My last hope is to talk with the President."

"Rufus is coming here?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah!" Cid said, brightening up. "It must be news about restarting the Space Program! A young president, that's what we need. He still has dreams too, I'll bet!"

Cloud rolled his eyes again. Rufus had dreams, all right. Dreams about control, and fear, and power. Not about sending an old coot into space.

"Have you seen a man in a black cloak?"

"Seen 'em all over the place," Cid said, reaching back to get a wrench as he tinkered with his rocket some more. "I don't even know why I'm fixing this bucket of crap."

"Where did they go?"

"Some of them were babbling on about a reunion," Cid muttered, "They, uh, went north. Don't know how that's possible though, Rocket Town is the northernmost city on this land-mass. The only thing more north than this is a few kilometres of grass and some fuckin' chocobos. God, I hate those things."

'_So,'_ Cloud thought. _'They've gone further north. If they can fly like Sephiroth, crossing over water wouldn't be a problem for them. But it is for us. Unless…'_

"Can we borrow the Tiny Bronco?"

"Are you outta your fucking mind?!" Cid shouted, "that's my most cherished possession. I can't let you take it!"

Cloud stood in silence for a little. Cid continued to tinker with a rocket that didn't need fixing.

"Are you still here?" asked Cid after a while.

"Sorry," Cloud nodded, and walked out, climbing back down the ladder.

"Well?" Barret asked.

"Well, Rufus is coming today, apparently," he said, "And the Sephiroth clones, if that is what they are, were talking about going north."

"Rufus?" Barret asked, "Rufus Shinra?"

"Seems so," Cloud nodded.

After a pause, Barret kicked the dirt. "So we borrow his plane?"

"He's not going to let us."

"Like hell he ain't!" Barret shouted, "We'll convince that wife of his to let us borrow it!"

Barret ran off towards the house.

"Yes, something is strange about Barret," Tifa sighed.

"Something is strange about all of you," Yuffie laughed, "We're a regular band of misfits! Just look at our newest member!" She pointed her thumb behind her at Vincent, who towered over the teenager.

"It is not nice to point," Vincent said, and, grabbing his cape, and turned quickly and began to walk off towards Cid's house. The long crimson cape blew about behind him as he walked.

"See what I mean?" Yuffie laughed.

Thankfully, Cloud arrived at the doorway before Barret had a chance to encounter Shera. She was just coming into the front hall, which was also the kitchen.

"Hello again," Shera said, "Did the captain say anything?"

"No," Aeris said, stepping between the ex-SOLDIER and the ex-leader of AVALANCHE. "He said we couldn't borrow it."

"Oh," Shera said.

Cid came charging through, pushing them all into his house.

"Fuck!" he shouted, "Shera! What are you, blind? We got guests, _get some tea_! Shit!"

"I'm," Shera stuttered, "I'm sorry." She turned to the stove and put on a kettle.

"Really," Cloud said, "Don't mind us."

"Shut up!" Cid turned and glared at Cloud, "Sit you ass down on that chair and drink your goddamntea!"

Cloud sat in the chair, as did Yuffie and Aeris.

"I'm pissed!" Cid shouted, "I'm going to check on the Tiny Bronco. And goddamnit, Shera, serve 'em some tea!"

Cid ran to the back of the house and Cloud felt guilty. Cid had gotten more crotchety since their discourse in the rocket.

"Sheesh," Aeris said, "What bad manners."

"Sorry, Shera," Cloud said, "It's our fault."

"No, no," Shera said, busy at the stove, "He's always like this."

"Always like this?" Tifa asked, "Why is Cid so hard on you?"

"He has every right to be," Shera said, opening a cupboard and grabbing her tin of tea leaves and the press. "It's because of my stupid mistake. I was the one who destroyed his dream."

"What happened?" Cloud asked.

Shera sighed and turned to them. "It was the day of the launch, many years ago…"


	78. Shera's Recollection: Shinra No 26

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 23**

**Shera's Recollection: Shinra No. 26**

_It was the day of the launch. But the oxygen tanks just needed one more check. And that was my job._

_I was on my hands and knees with a clipboard, around the back of oxygen tank 1. There was some engine grease that had splashed along the back here a while ago, but it would do nothing. I wrote it down just in case. Heavens forbid, if Cid died up there, then I could at least decipher just what was wrong._

"_Hey!" came a voice. I poked my head around the corner to see Cid there, cigarette in mouth, arms akimbo, looking at me with great disdain. "Get your ass in gear, Shera. You work like a snail. Even the moon'd get tired of waiting around for your ass!"_

_Crawling around to the grated walkway, I stood. I was happy that he remembered my name._

"_I'm sorry," I said softly._

"_Don't take so much time checking that fuckin' oxygen tank," Cid said, "Shera, being careful is good, but it won't make a difference how many times you checked it. This is bonified Shinra metal, nothing bad's gonna happen to it. That thing wouldn't break even if hell froze over."_

"_But…"_

"_No buts!" Cid shouted, "You're not stupid, so be more efficient!"_

"_I'm sorry, captain," I said._

_That was Cid. He managed to find a compliment even when I screwed up this badly. The captain turned and walked down to the ladder. Men lined up against the eight oxygen tanks and saluted him._

"_Captain, preparations are complete," said the head engineer, but he glanced at me quickly. I began inspecting oxygen tank 2, but listened in. "All that is left is the lift off."_

_Cid laughed, "Leave it all to me. I'll be back in a few!"_

"_All right, captain!" the head engineer nodded._

_Cid climbed up the ladder, I recognized the sounds of his boots. He stopped and said, "Thanks, guys."_

"_We're praying for your safety!" they shouted._

_The climbing continued. All of the workers left. I stayed behind._

_I had to finish my inspection. I quickly surveyed tanks two through six when Cid's voice came over the intercom._

"Instrument panel, all clear. Shinra number twenty-six ready for launch! Or YA-79, as Palmer would call it. Can you hear me, Palmer?"

"Loud and clear!"_ Palmer laughed, _"Engine pressure rising. YA-79, Shinra Number twenty-six, three minutes to launch. Beginning countdown."

_I was inspecting the seventh oxygen tank when Cid's voice came over the intercom._

"Finally…"_ he said wistfully._

_My presence was then detected by the sensors. Damnit. The alarm went off and red lights began to flash. This would certainly put a damper on my work._

"What the--?!"_ came Cid's voice, _"What happened?"

"Cid!"_ came the voice of the head engineer through the intercom, _"We have an emergency situation. The sensors are picking up an external heat source from within the engine room!"

"What?! Who is that little fucker?!"

"I don't know,"_ said the head engineer, _"Hooking up the engine room to the intercom!"

"Who the fuck is still in there?!"_ Cid's voice came out louder._

_Was I hooked up to the intercom now? I hadn't really been paying attention._

"_It's Shera, captain," I said, "Don't mind me, go ahead with the launch."_

"Shera?!"_ Cid shouted, _"What the hell are you still doing in there? You know that is the engine of the rocket, right?"

"_I'm still concerned," I said, "The results of the tank tests I made yesterday weren't satisfactory."_

"You stupid bitch!"_ Cid shouted, _"It's so hot in there, there isn't gonna be shit left when we blast off! You're going to be burned to a crisp. You're gonna die! You know that, dontcha?!"

_Cid was always so caring. Most of the time, people didn't notice it because of his foul mouth. I knew though, he was so warmhearted. Someone like that couldn't just die. I needed to see this through to the end._

"_I don't mind," I said, "If I can just finish this, the launch will be a success. I'm almost done."_

"Almost done?!"_ Cid asked, _"You're gonna die!"

"Cid, we must start the countdown. We won't make it if we don't," the head engineer called.

"Starting engine!"_ Palmer said._

"Hey, wait a minute! Shera's still in here!"

"What are you going to do, Cid? If we cancel now, it'll be another six months until the next launch!"

"Goddamnit, Shera. Do you want to make me a murderer?!"

_Tank number seven was complete. Now I just needed to check tank number eight._

"_Captain!" I__ called._

"Shera?!"

"_Once I complete tank number 8, you're all clear."_

"Come on, Shera. Hurry up, you're going to die!"

"Thirty seconds until ignition!"

"Hey! Wait a minute! Shera is still in here!"

_Tank number eight was the tank that was giving my report the most problems, and it would take every second I had to ensure that it was safe. I crawled around the back. The room was getting very hot._

"Cid, forget about her, we won't make it in time!"_ called the head engineer._

"What…"_ Cid started. _"What am I…"

_There was something wrong with the tank here. The thing had been built quickly, that was for sure. I could fix it; the compression coil just needed a good tightening. It might still be a problem after the launch, but if I didn't fix it now, Cid would die for sure. Or so I thought. I reached into my white lab coat and pulled out a wrench. It was so hot it burned my hand, and I dropped it. Stupid. I was beginning to feel dizzy, the heat was causing everything I saw to wave around in front of me._

"What am I supposed to do?"_ asked Cid._

"Fifteen seconds until ignition. Internal temperature rising."

_No kidding. I needed all of those fifteen seconds to fix this. Even then, I wasn't sure if I would make it in time. I braced myself and picked up the wrench. It scolded my hand but I still clutched, until the nerves in my hand burned away, and the wrench had burned itself into my skin. I screamed but still moved the wrench to it's proper position. Nothing mattered now, my life was forfeit. If I could only tighten the compression coil._

_It was getting too hot, and I had to take off my glasses to see anything. I twisted and turned._

"Oh man…"_ came Cid's voice, _"The moon… outer space… my dreams…"

"_Don't worry about me," I shouted, "Your dream is coming true!"_

"Ignite engine!"

_The heat grew too hot and I felt myself collapsing, as Cid shouted _"Shit!"_ over the intercom._

_Cid had pushed the emergency engine shut down switch. The rocket had ignited, and began to lift off, but stopped immediately and fell back to the ground. Losing it's balance, the rocket tipped over, coming to rest off center on the launch platform, loosely against the eastern gentry._

_The mission had been aborted to save my life. Shortly after, when Palmer had reported this to Shinra, the launch was canceled indefinitely and the space program was abandoned. Cid was enraged and left the company, but they claimed the rights to all of his inventions, including every mode of air transport available. Shinra's flying cruise ship 'The Highwind' shares it's name with its designer, Cid Highwind._

_Cid was destroyed. He didn't leave the bridge for weeks. He didn't eat, even when I brought him food._

_The engineers had built houses in the area, using wood from surrounding lands. They had no means of going anywhere else, so they made do with what they had. My house was right underneath the rocket. I built it there when we found out the rocket was still tipping._

_When Cid died, so would I, or so I hoped. If Cid was to stay in the rocket to the very end, then I would go with him when Shinra No. 26 came down._

_Then came the day, the day when there was a knock on her door. I opened it and there he was, standing proudly on the ground._

"_I had a vision," he said, "A vision for a new plane."_


	79. Book 3: Stealing the Tiny Bronco

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book III**

**The Homecoming**

* * *

**Chapter 24**

**Stealing the Tiny Bronco**

"That's why," Shera ended, "It's all right. I don't care what the captain says or does to me. He saved my life, and I'll live it for him."

They sat in silence as Shera looked at them all. She smiled meekly, and showed them her right hand. It was horribly scarred, the burning wrench had made its mark on her bubbling skin. Yuffie cringed when she saw it.

"You would spend your whole life," Vincent said, "Atoning for your sins."

"Yes," Shera said.

"I'm… not sure if that is comforting or not," He said from under his cape, and walked to the wall.

"You really admire Cid," Aeris said, "Even when he's always been mean to you?"

"He's got a tongue on him," Shera smiled, "But he's soft underneath it."

'_Like Barret,'_ Cloud thought, and looked at the man who killed mercilessly to protect his daughter.

Barret stood, his arms crossed and his face frozen. His mouth was distorted, frowning. Looking up, his eyes met Cloud's and they exchanged peculiar looks. Huffing after a moment, Barret moved towards the door, and Tifa followed him.

Outside, Barret was quickly walking away from the house.

"Hey, Barret!" Tifa shouted, closing the door behind her. She ran after him, her long legs catching her up quickly. When she reached him, she took off her gloves and grabbed his arm tenderly with her hands. This made Barret stop in his tracks.

They stood there for a while, in the shadow of the great rocket. Barret slouched away from her but Tifa walked to the front of him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I couldn't save 'em," Barret said finally, "Biggs, Wedge, an Jessie. I couldn't save 'em, Tifa."

"It's not your fault, Barret," Tifa said, "None of us could. We tried, Barret, and that's what matters."

"An' Corel. I couldn't… everyone I know, except you of course. They're all gone, killed by the Shinra. If I had known it woulda been this way. If I had known that AVALANCHE would go down like that, in the blink of an eye. I would never have come to Midgar. I wouldn't have started AVALANCHE."

"Don't say that," Tifa said, "Never say that. You did what's right, Barret. There's many people in this world, many people. And the people who choose to do the right thing are all with you. Me, Cloud, Aeris. We're all here to do what's right."

"And what's right, Tifa?" Barret asked, "Chasing Sephiroth? What are we gonna do when we find him? Get our asses killed just like everyone in your hometown?"

Tifa fell silent, but after a pause, said, "I don't know why Sephiroth is after the Promised Land, and I don't know why Shinra is still sucking the life out of the Planet. But I do know, that if we let these things continue, the Planet is going to die. And then, righteous and unrighteous alike will die with it. Those who choose to fight for the Planet are a rare and dying breed. I can count them on my fingers, and aside from us two, they are all back inside that house."

Barret sighed deeply. "I know it. There's no more collectin' debris after this. It's jes' us now."

"Yeah," Tifa said. "And we don't need debris. We'll roll until the slope stops, and no mercy to anyone who gets in our way."

He almost laughed at that, but he stopped at a smile. He rubbed his wet beard and blinked forcefully. "Where's their knowledge now? Their memories of fire are gonna group all together and make materia. But what about what they know? Their personal memories? Their emotions? Where'd they go? Are they floatin' around beneath our feet? Did they break up into pictures an' sounds? Where'd my friends go?"

"Everywhere, Barret."

"Everywhere. That means nowhere. Ain't no ghosts in the Lifestream, just spare parts. Unless they get sucked up int'a reactor, and work a lightbulb for a day. Ain't no way for a hero to go. You're right, Tifa. Ain't no gettin' offa this train we're on. We're gonna make a noise so loud, it'll start a million avalanches."

Tifa smiled slightly and began to put her gloves back on. Barret was looking behind Tifa now.

"Who's that?" he asked.

* * *

The back door opened and Cid returned from checking on the Tiny Bronco.

"Shera!" he shouted, "You still haven't served them tea!"

"I'm sorry," Shera said softly, and returned to the stove.

Cid grabbed a chair and sat down, propping his feet on the table, his boots were covered in mud.

"The rest of you, sit down!" he said, "Or ain't my hospitality good enough for ya?"

They looked for chairs and found none.

Cid crossed his arms and began tapping his foot in the air, "They're late," he said, "Where is Rufus?"

"Maybe they're not coming," Cloud said, "Obviously, you've never met Rufus before."

The door opened and in walked Tifa and Barret.

"Everything okay?" Aeris asked.

Barret nodded and walked inside.

"Cid, there's someone here for you," Tifa said and moved away from the door. From behind her, a portly balding man strutted in, dusting off his dirty brown suit.

"Hey, hey!" he shouted, "Long time no see! So, Cid, how have ya been?"

Cid stood up and walked to him, "Well, well. If it ain't Yaphet 'fat man' Palmer. How long were you figurin' on keeping me waiting for?"

"Well, after this many years, you'd think you could wait another five minutes to see me!" Palmer laughed.

"So when is the space program starting up again?" Cid asked.

"Don't look at me," Palmer said, "I'm just here cause I missed seeing that stupid rocket. The president is outside, why don't you go talk to him."

"Shit!" Cid growled, "Good for nothing, fat fuck!"

"Don't call me fat!" Palmer whined.

Cid walked past him and outside. Palmer moved to the stove, helping himself to the first cup of tea - scooping a spoonful of sugar and cooking lard inside. Shera's lip curled in disgust.

* * *

Rufus stood a little ways in front of Cid's house, and Cid's first reaction was about Rufus' clothing. Cathal Shinra had been very into the color crimson, but Rufus was wearing bright white. He was fixing his hair and the MPs escorting him watched with fervor. Cid walked up to the group.

"Good afternoon," Cid smiled, "Cigarette?"

"No, thank you," Rufus said, then, with a smirk "Don't you know that stuff will kill you?"

"I live dangerously," Cid took a cigarette out of the pack strapped to his head and lit it up, breathing in deeply. "But enough with the bullshit, we're men of action. The space program; when can we—"

"We're not starting up the space program again."

Cid paused for a moment, "What the fuck?" he asked, "You got me all excited for nothing? What the hell did you come here for?"

"We're going after Sephiroth," Rufus said, "He's alive and we're following him. But it seems we've been going in the wrong direction. We thought he was heading north, but it seems he is sending his followers north while he goes elsewhere. Which is why we need to borrow the Tiny Bronco."

"I don't give a shit about what you're after!" Cid shouted, "Fuck! First the airship, then the rocket, and now the Tiny Bronco. Shinra took outer space away from me, and now you want to take the sky away from me too?"

"You forget," Rufus said, "It was because of Shinra Incorporated that you were able to fly in the first place."

"What?" Cid asked, "The Tiny Bronco was designed and built by me, you have no right to take it."

"All right," Rufus said, "If you want to live completely independently, perhaps I'll just shut off the mako reactor in the Nibel Mountains, cutting off the power to this little village."

"And cut off power to Nibelheim as well?" Cid asked, "You wouldn't dare."

"You're right," Rufus said, "But I can cut off all the lines that lead to this village, which will boost Nibelheim's power. Hey now, that's not such a bad idea."

"Your problem lies with me, not with the villagers here."

"You don't seem to understand how much Shinra gives—"

"—Controls!"

"… fair enough. We control every person living on the Planet - including Sephiroth and including you. And we will take what we need to find him, or else."

* * *

Shera had barely enough time to pour some tea for the others before Palmer slammed his empty mug on the counter and decided to go ahead with his plan. "Where are you going?" Shera asked as he walked to the back of the house.

"I'm going to do what I came here for," Palmer said, "Steal the Tiny Bronco!"

Cloud looked to Shera.

"You wanted to use the Tiny Bronco?" asked Shera.

Cloud nodded.

"Well, perhaps you should talk to him."

They ran after Palmer, who was sitting in the cockpit of the small plane. He was fiddling with the dials and muttering to himself. "Why me… I'm not a pilot…"

"Palmer!" Cloud shouted, and the head of the Space Department turned to them. "We'll be taking that airplane."

"I've seen you somewhere before," Palmer thought, and when he realized, his eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped, "The Shinra building! When the president was killed!" he gulped and cried out, "Security!"

Security did not come for Palmer, for there were only three MPs and they were concerning themselves with Rufus and Cid, who were arguing.

Fortunately for Palmer, he had a gun. He pulled it out and fired.

The bullet hit Yuffie in the arm and she cried out. It went right through and Aeris closed the wound quickly with her materia. Yuffie backed away and held up her own.

Cloud's sword was out and he was hurling himself onto the wing. Palmer fired and barely missed him. The bullet flew right past the right wing's propeller.

Palmer fired again and pushed some more dials. The engine started up with a putt and began to shake.

Cloud's sword was coming right for him, and Palmer ducked quickly, avoiding getting scalped by it. He leaped from of the cockpit and fired again, his bullet was blocked by the sword. Yuffie had jumped onto the wing and threw her shuriken at Palmer, and it caught his gun, and both weapons flew off the Tiny Bronco. Vincent jumped and floated gracefully onto the wing, where he fired a single bullet from his gun and it hit Palmer in the hand. Palmer clutched his hand and screamed, blood drooling out onto the left wing. Yuffie was off the plane and grabbing her shuriken. She leapt back onto the plane as it started to move.

"Get on!" shouted Cloud.

Nanaki leapt onto the tail of the plane and growled at Palmer. Barret was climbing into the cockpit as fast as he could, and Aeris helped Tifa onto the right wing. The weight on the right wing caused the plane to circle around itself - the propeller sliced the grass in the yard and it flung dirt into the air. Palmer almost lost his balance, but regained it as the soil rained upon them.

"Cait Sith!" shouted Aeris.

Cait Sith was bounding as fast as he could after it, but Mog fell over and the robotic cat skidded across the mud.

"Aw!" he shouted.

"Get that damned cat on the plane!" Barret shouted, "This thing ain't stoppin!"

The plane circled around and Cloud picked up the cat by the tail. Mog was up and Aeris was helping it onto the wing.

Nanaki had now pounced on Palmer and the two adversaries tumbled off of the wing, falling in the tracks created by the plane's wayward course. The Tiny Bronco was circling around again and the propeller approached their position.

"Get him off me!" Palmer screamed.

Nanaki jumped off of the man and back on the wing. "Is he off?" Barret asked, trying to see from the seat.

"He's off!" Tifa shouted.

"Then so are we!" Barret shouted, he surveyed the controls with a dumbstruck slant, noting that Tifa had not even let him drive a buggy, let alone aircraft.

* * *

"I'm not letting you thirty feet near my plane!" Cid said, his feet firmly placed between Rufus and his house.

"Oh, there's no need," Rufus said, "Palmer is already stealing the Tiny Bronco. But, just because of your resistance, we're going to cut power to the city anyway."

Stammering, Cid tried to retain his pride, "We'll survive! We ran on coal power until your old man burned down Corel. And Palmer couldn't drive a toy truck, so don't give me that shit."

"Oh, there he is," Rufus said.

Cid turned to see his plane in the air. It looped around the rocket and came right towards them. The person driving obviously had no clue what they were doing. However, Palmer was not inside, and there were numerous lumps on the wings. As it got closer, Cid identified the lumps.

They were his guests!

"Cloud Strife!" Rufus cried and turned to his MP escorts, "Fire at the Tiny Bronco! Kill them!"

The MPs began to open fire on the plane as it buzzed right over their heads. Cid grabbed Rufus and pushed him to the ground as the propeller sliced through the air right where his head had been. As soon as Rufus was down, Cid was back up – sprinting out of town after his plane.

The Tiny Bronco began a steep incline, which slowed it down so that Cid could catch up. He assumed it was unintentional, as the man with one arm was behind the wheel. His wheel! Cid huffed and puffed, nearly out of breath. He silently wished that Rocket hadn't been an economy fueled on tobacco trade or else he might have not smoked away his energy all these years. The Tiny Bronco paused midair before beginning its dive towards the ground – the baby blue nose of it falling towards Cid.

"No!" Cid cried, fearing the worst.

The plane evened out slowly as the woman with the long black hair grabbed the wheel over the one armed giant. The nose missed Cid by a few metres and when one of the two tail wings scraped against the dirt ground, Cid took the chance to leap aboard.

The extra weight of the new passenger rocked the plane to the left and Tifa had to even out before Cait Sith and Mog tumbled right off. Cid held on for dear life as bullets flew by his ear.

"What the hell are you doing?" he shouted.

"Saving your plane!" Cloud shouted, helping him up.

"Get outta the seat, you big oaf!" Cid cried as he reached for the controls over Barret. The plane rocked and shook as Barret and Cid crawled over each other to switch positions.

"Keep the giant in the middle!" Cid shouted, "Even out the weight!"

They were nearing the shores just west of Rocket – a small beach led into the vast open ocean. A bullet hit the tail's propeller and it began to spark.

"Shit! The tail's been hit!" Cid shouted.

"Emergency landing!" Cloud ordered.

"Don't tell me what to do on my plane!" Cid barked, but a landing was inevitable.

"We'll be over water!" Aeris pointed at the ocean - vast and terrifyingly close.

"This is gonna be one big splash!" Cid called, firmly stationed in the pilot's seat, "Hold onto your drawers, and don't piss in 'em!"

The Tiny Bronco began its descent, smoke trailing away from it. It cleared the beach and was quite far away from shore when it hit. Everyone braced themselves as the water smacked all of them, and then pulled them under.

**End of Book 3**


	80. Foreward to Book 4: The Promised Land

**Foreward**

Book III is a thing of the past and you've been left on quite the cliffhanger. I mentioned earlier that Books II, III and IV were amassed in a single volume, and hopefully now you can see why I did that. If you only purchased Book II, for instance, you may feel kind of screwed because it jerks you around and doesn't really resolve anything. Book III is the same thing. And you can also probably surmise why I didn't just make Books II, III and IV one single book - the stylistic qualities of Book II and III vary greatly - Book III has its constant flashbacks and Book II is half-flashback, half quest. Book IV takes a departure from its two brothers in that it is ALL set in the present tense. There is only one "Recollection" chapter and... well let's just say it doesn't go very far into the past. You can probably assume that by setting the entire thing in the now, things will get done instead of relying on secondary plots to keep us entertained. Yes, friends. The meat of the quest is contained in this book, and what a quest it is. Magic temples, betrayal, monsters, witches, promised lands, you are in for a treat!

I think some of my best writing emerges in this book. I am really passionate about this part of the story and it shows quite a bit. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy sharing it. Bonne lecture.

-Mr. Ite


	81. Book 4: The Tiny Bronco Afloat

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**The Tiny Bronco Afloat**

Aeris Gainsborough had the power to heal. Cloud was beginning to suspect that it was her, not the dehydrated rations, that had kept them alive for the last three weeks. There was something magical about her. When they had met in January, he had just fallen fifty metres down into the slums. He was convinced that she had kept him alive then, too – by proximity alone. No one, not even an ex-SOLDIER could have survived that fall. He had the healing materia in thrall, but couldn't have used it himself. He would have been dead on impact. And no amount of magic can raise the dead.

That brought up the question of why Sephiroth was still alive. By rights they should both be dead. Cloud had been over this a thousand times, he sat in silence for great parts of the day, when he wasn't bonding with the other members of what Barret referred to as the third incarnation of AVALANCHE. In those moments of silence he would shift back and forth, continually wondering who was more powerful, Sephiroth or Aeris. They were both Ancients. _'Well'_ Cloud thought, _'Sephiroth was created, but with Ancient blood.'_

Perhaps that's what made Sephiroth return from the grave, or at least kept him alive. Ancient blood. Cloud was always conflicted. If Ancients - sorry, Cetra - could defy death, that would mean Aeris would never leave him. But it also meant that Sephiroth would always be there, ready to kill him.

Thinking about this tossed Cloud about, and the movement of the _Bronco_ atop the waves made his head swim. _'Headaches again,'_ he sighed, and lifted his head up.

After crashing into the ocean on Cid's personal plane, they had congregated atop it and watched helplessly as the Western Continent disappeared beyond the horizon. _The Tiny Bronco_ was now not much more than a raft. As the weeks went on, hope came and went in waves.

Tifa and Aeris were usually giggling about something or other, trying to get their minds off their dire plight. Barret and Cid were usually cussing at each other with great fervour, sometimes in a friendly way, sometimes not. Barret would explain why the bombing last month had to happen, to save the Planet from Shinra. He even tried to explain the Lifestream once or twice, although his knowledge of the theology behind mako was limited. Cid would usually reply with witty insults before continuing to tinker in the lone pilot seat. The other eight people – Cloud included – sat, stood and lay on the pink wings of_ The Tiny Bronco_ as it drifted into the vast open ocean.

They had celebrated Aeris' twenty-third birthday on the seventh of February. Cid offered her one of his cigarettes, but she declined gracefully. No one had anything to give her, since they had been stranded on the ship since mid-January. But Cloud had remembered her birthday from one of their earlier chats, and they had surprised her with a cake made of the tastiest dehydrated rations they could find. Nanaki had conjured a floating, candle-sized flame above the cake, and when she leaned over to blow it out, she pawed subtly at Cloud's hand.

How Cloud had gotten used to her hands. Often, when people were asleep, Aeris would slip her hand into his; he would retract his hand, remove his glove, and embrace hers. How well kept his hands were inside of his gloves, so sensitive to touch, it tickled and excited him and sleep became the last thing on his mind. And they would just look at each other, for minutes at a time before one of them was lulled to sleep by the rocking of _The Tiny Bronco_. When Aeris drifted to sleep, Cloud would sometimes keep watching for a while, how her hand clenched his when her dreams became intense. She would wake and continue looking at him in the quiet moonlight, only the sounds of the lapping waves against the still propellers. She wasn't phased by the fact that he was still watching, for sometimes Cloud would wake up to find her beautiful green eyes staring at him, her small closed smile sincerely beaming at him. She seemed brighter than the moon. And to her, Cloud's eyes were, as the smallest fraction of light would only be a catalyst for the imbued mako in his eyes. The moon fractured into a million fireworks, exploding from his small, almost nonexistent pupils, and there she would find comfort enough to drift to sleep.

* * *

"I smell land," Nanaki announced fervently on the morning of the tenth. Cid had gotten used to the lupine beast talking in the last three weeks, its furry red jaws opening and closing, like a dog chewing, but its tongue orchestrated the finest common tongue of them all, besides Aeris, whose every word sang like opera.

"Land?!" Cid shouted, pulling his head up from the cockpit. He looked around, seeing only water.

Nanaki closed his one remaining eye, the one that had not been scratched out by HO512. He relaxed and let the breeze of the Planet fill his snout. He turned his head and said, "That way."

Vincent was the first to start paddling. He spent most of his time at the edge of the wing, ignoring most everyone. On occasion he would dip his golden boots into the water and stare off into the distance, mumbling to himself. That gave young Yuffie a grand excuse to pester him, but Vincent was unmoved by her attempts to excite him. Her insults were always wittier on land. Yuffie had been complaining of wretched motion sickness for the past three weeks.

Now Vincent seemed somewhat excited, and he thrust his left arm into the water. Cloud was still not sure if it was a real arm or an artificial one, like Barret's. But something had been done to Vincent, someone had mutated him so, and put him in that coffin for thirty years. Cloud gave him his space.

On the other wing, the three ladies paddled away at the water, making more mess than progress. Vincent's long strokes with his long arm began turning the ship in circles.

"Damn!" Barret shouted, and ran behind the ladies. Due to his abnormal giantism, Barret was usually confined to the center of the plane, for fear of tipping the ship right back underwater. Getting the ship upright and getting everyone back on was a hassle in and of itself, finding small little Cait Sith again was not something Cloud was looking forward to doing. To balance the weight, he leapt over to Vincent's side and the plane evened out. Cait Sith, riding atop Mog picked up his megaphone and began shouting, in his high pitched robotic voice, "Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!"

They picked up speed – the waves were on their side. The propellers, each still attached to the wings of_ The Tiny Bronco_, began to turn, helping them. Aeris and Yuffie, aware that their doggy paddling was useless, immediately ran to each propeller and attempted to slow it.

"Keep 'em going!" Cid barked, "They're helping our speed!"

Aeris started turning the propellers herself. With no engine power to speak of, there was no chance she could get hurt. Yuffie did the same.

And so they continued on for hours, until they could see the shore of a long stretch of land, a continent ahead.

"It's Wutai," Yuffie said, "I'd know those mountains anywhere!"

Cid climbed out of the cockpit, "You can stop rowing now, the tide will bring us in."

Cloud brought his hand out of the water and removed his glove. As expected, his fingers were but prunes underneath. Barret heaved his gun-arm out of the water, confident that it would not rust. Everyone took a break on the wings, enjoying the sunlight.

"What a relief," Aeris said, but Cloud knew better.

Wutai was desolate. It had been all but obliterated in its war with Shinra. If Shinra wasn't to have a reactor there, then it would take the land by force. The war was bloody, and Cloud remembered reading of the hero, General Sephiroth, who was singlehandedly changing the tides. So Cloud joined SOLDIER, just in time for Wutai to lose the war. Now, it was overrun with dangerous beasts. A ruined island.

Tifa sighed. "Yuffie, this is your homeland, right?"

Yuffie nodded, "It's been a while since I've seen it." There was something hidden in her voice there, but Cloud wasn't quick witted enough to pick up on it. Shortly after, she threw up her rations into the ocean behind them, and groaned accordingly.

"For someone who likes jumpin' around a whole lot," Barret mused, "You sure don't like bein' off land."

"Think I'm weak, big man?! I could take you even if this thing was in the air. Hell, I dare... oh god..."

She vomited and Barret dismissed her with a gesture of his hand. "Heh heh... thought so."

An hour passed and _The Tiny Bronco_ was close to a beach. A few beachplugs scurried around on the sand, grabbing crabs with their green tentacle legs, and lowering their mouths onto their frightened meal. One last final wave sent the ship hitting the sand, Nanaki was the first to leap off, bounding like a dog on a hare hunt towards the cliffs.

Vincent leapt off the side and floated down onto the ground, easing himself back onto solid planetside. It was still a mystery to Cloud how Vincent managed to float around like that, as if he didn't abide by the same rules of gravity as everyone else, or more yet, he could control how gravity effected him at any point. Perhaps it was definitely a part of his... alteration.

Cloud leapt off the wing as well, landing on the beach, but his legs weren't used to ground anymore, a pain shot up right through his spine, and he collapsed on the sand. Aeris eased herself off, her combat boots landing in front of Cloud's dirty face. She reached down a tender hand and helped him up.

As Cloud rose to his feet, he thought of their hands entwined again. He wondered if those times were over.

Tifa climbed over the wing, her short black skirt riding up, but Cloud payed no attention. She held his glove in hers. "Almost forgot this," she handed it to him and walked along the beach, fixing herself.

Mog comically bounded off of _The Tiny Bronco_, rolling along the sand and sending Cait Sith flying towards the cliffs before them, hitting the beach not far away. The robot cat made long aggravating noises and yelled, "Watch it!" into his megaphone.

The whole ship rocked as Barret leapt off and onto the sand, and Cid and Yuffie followed after.

"LAND!" Yuffie collapsed on the beach, "Never leave my side again!"

"There's a cave over here," Nanaki shouted, returning from the cliffside, "It's not very deep, but it's cover, and there's no hostile life inside."

"How fortunate," Cloud agreed, "We camp there tonight. Nanaki and Cid? Could you try and catch some fish for us to eat?"

"I'll make another spear," Cid laughed.

"Aeris and Yuffie, please set up a sleeping area in the cave."

"Aye, aye, cap'n!" Yuffie smirked, and grabbed the large pack from _The Tiny Bronco_.

Barret was shooting at fish in the water. Cloud called over, "Barret! I need you and Vincent to gather berries and firewood with me."

"Wha?!" Barret huffed, "Thatsa babies job!"

"If we find berries, we find animals, I need bullets to protect us from said animals."

Tifa approached Cloud, "What'll I do?"

Cloud smiled at her, "You need to make us a fire."

* * *

As the sand about her feet blew away, with her hands folded together, Tifa Lockheart summoned fire. It began as a spark on the pile of wood that Vincent and Barret had collected, some dry, some wet – it didn't really matter with magic involved. The fire grew bigger and hotter and the weary travellers put their hands towards it. After the wood was burning steadily, Tifa stopped her conjuring and let the fire itself take over. She was applauded for her work, the spell had tired her and she was ready to eat.

Yuffie, as a native to the country, had approved of the fish and berries, assuring everyone that they were not poisonous. The large bug creature that Barret came back holding, however, was referred to by Yuffie as 'the deadly jayjujayme,' and had to be burned in the fire rather than eaten.

Cid's new spear, finely crafted if-he-did-say-so-himself, never left his hand once that night, it was like a newborn child.

"Tomorrow, Cid," Cloud broke the long silence while everyone chewed, "You'll come with me and Aeris to the nearest city. Maybe you can find some supplies--"

"She won't fly anymore," Cid said, for the first time his voice was deep, real. He was unsettlingly calm, staring into the fire. "Don't matter what the parts, she won't fly."

"Can we use her as a boat?"

"Fuck, do whatever you want," Cid said, laying the spear across his lap. They were silent for a while, most everyone had stopped eating, save Barret, who had somehow quickened his chewing and slurping on the innards of his aquatic prey.

"What are you going to do now?" Aeris asked, knowing, for once, exactly what to say.

"Dunno," the old pilot shrugged, "I'm history with Shinra, and I've given up on the town."

"What about your wife?" Cloud asked, "What about Shera?"

Cid laughed out loud, a fishy piece unlodged itself from between his teeth and landed in the fire with a singe, "Wife?!" he chuckled some more, "Just thinkin' about marryin' her gives me the chills."

Cid laughed until silence grew over the camp. Barret had eaten his fill and was reclining on a log, patting his stomach quietly.

"What are you guys gonna do?" Cid asked.

"We're after a man named Sephiroth. We'll probably have to get president Rufus someday too, if he can't change his ways."

"Well," Cid said, "I don't know about any of that, but I know Rufus was going after Sephiroth towards the Temple of the Ancients."

Aeris became very still. After a long time, with just the fire and the waves filling their ears, she asked, "Will you come with us?"

"What the hell," Cid laughed, "Where do I sign up?" He speared a dead fish from the bucket and held it over the fire.

"Everyone is all right with that?" Cloud asked.

"Of course!" Tifa said, smiling at Cid.

"Glad to be aboard," Cid laughed, and then, as an afterthought, "numbskulls."

"Numbskulls?" Cloud asked.

"Sure, anyone who goes against Shinra nowadays has gotta be a fuckin idiot. I like it."

Yuffie laughed at that, and munched away at the berries.

With help from Tifa, the fire lasted all night, and they fell asleep peacefully in the cave. In the middle of the night, Cloud felt the familiar soft hand on his. He had learned to take his gloves off before he slept. He smiled, not yet awake, not asleep anymore. When he opened his eyes, she was already drifting off, losing herself in the cacophony of earthly voices that only her ancient ears could hear. Cloud and Aeris only exchanged a glance for a fleeting moment before she was gone.


	82. Book 4: Stolen Materia

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Stolen Materia**

Vincent Valentine stood on the beach, a man so tall and slender that it seemed like Cloud was approaching an infant tree. His red cape blew about behind him theatrically in the sea breeze, revealing the gun at his hip.

"Can't sleep?" Cloud mused, recalling how they met.

Vincent returned Cloud's look and smiled, if that was possible for Vincent to do, his face was as white as paper, and his mouth rarely moved, even when he spoke, "I would if I could," came the dark voice lightly. Vincent turned to the sea. He was a towering pile of rags, his raven black hair and high collared cape concealed his profiled face.

"You're hometown," he said, slowly and gruffly, "It was Nibelheim."

"Yeah," Cloud scratched the back of his head, the only place where his hair was not greasy enough to spike upwards. "They rebuilt everything, even the chair in my living room."

"They must have known alot about the town before its destruction."

"That's Shinra for you..." Cloud trailed off and looked to the ocean with Vincent. The moon hoverred over the waves, its glow overshining the stars around it, and it became vastly alone in the dark night.

"Where were you born?" Cloud asked.

"It's of no importance," Vincent sighed, "Who I was is dead. Who I am doesn't exist."

"Then who will you be?"

"The same thing I am now, only moreso. Nothing."

"You don't believe in Lifestream?"

"It's not a matter of believing," Vincent turned to face Cloud, and the wind blew the hair away from his pale face, and his eyes glowed a placid red, "Do you believe that is sand that you stand on?"

Cloud nodded in agreement. Lifestream was a science, there was proof in Shinra's reactors. There was mako inside of him. The thoughts of the Cetra were solidified in materia – Tifa's fire, Aeris' healing, spiritual processes. Cloud had made them all a science. There was no difference on the Planet, between faith and science, Bugenhagen had taught him that, that strange old sage who loved the smell of oil, but detested mako use.

"Sins," he said darkly, "I should be atoning, alone in the darkness."

"Then why are you here, Vincent?"

"Because I need to find him."

"And when you do?"

"I intend to kill him."

"Hojo."

"The man responsible for the inevitable destruction of the Planet."

"You blame Hojo, and not Sephiroth?"

Vincent thought for a while, "Sephiroth is much more than a man, but more than anything he is an accident. Hojo created that accident and he must pay. But if you ask who I blame, it is myself for letting it happen. So I must set things right. It is the only way I can be forgiven."

"You know," Cloud thought, "Aeris, and Nanaki too have been hurt by him personally. I wonder just what Hojo did to you, that made you... this way."

It dawned on Cloud that perhaps Vincent was another one of Hojo's experiments, perhaps he had a number, like Nanaki. Perhaps, there was a slight chance that Vincent might become one of them, the lifeless drones, growing every day in more likeness to Sephiroth, those with Jenova's cells in them.

"Do you have, Jenova's..."

"Reserved for members of the Jenova Project only. I have no number... You were once an ex-SOLDIER, were you not?"

Cloud recalled an unlikely run-in with Hojo on another beach, one month ago. Hojo had been cackling about SOLDIERs and Jenova, but it was hazy to him now, more headaches.

"I'm going to bed," Cloud said coldly, and went back to the cave. Vincent muttered something under his breath, but Cloud left him there, the standing tree at the ocean's edge.

When he entered the cave's mouth, he was surprised to find Yuffie crawling back into her bed. She quickly lay down and pretended to sleep, so Cloud did the same thing, slipping his hand back into Aeris. She sighed in her sleep and grabbed his hand with both of hers, bringing it up to her chest and cuddling with his arm. He surrendered his arm and stared up at the rock walls.

"Normal members of SOLDIER are humans showered with mako. You're different," Sephiroth had said, "But still human."

Cloud was different? But how? Sleep was taking hold, and his thoughts of that drifted as Aeris placed a hand gently on his stomach.

* * *

"Cloud, wake up."

Cloud's eyes shot open and Tifa stared down at him. He shot a quick glance to where Aeris had been, but she was already up and out. He looked up at Tifa and groggily smiled.

"Breakfast is ready. More fish."

Barret was out relieving himself in the bushes when the fish was prepared. They ate small amounts.

"Cid, Aeris and I will move to the nearest town," Cloud announced, "The rest of you, stay with the Bronco. If we're not back in three days, send out another team of three to come look for us. I want Nanaki to stay here to help with hunting."

"Yes," Nanaki nodded.

Cloud looked around, there were seven around the morning fire.

"Someone's missing," he said.

"Barret will be back in a few minutes," Cait Sith shouted through the megaphone.

"No, there's only seven of us here," Cloud said, "...where's Yuffie?"

"Up here!" Yuffie called, and Cloud turned to look at the young woman, waving to them from atop a cliff. "You can't go without a guide, right? And I know this area more than anyone!"

"I can stay behind," Aeris said, but Cloud insisted that she come along.

Cid, Aeris and Cloud found a path that led to Yuffie's position, and they passed Barret, who was on his way down. They followed Yuffie for a good few minutes, until she suddenly picked up the pace.

"Yuffie!" Aeris called, "Wait!"

Yuffie turned around, smirking, "It gets pretty tough past here," she laughed, pointing to where they were headed. The plateau they were on ended with a bridge, and they could see nothing else beyond it. "You'd better keep up with me, or you'll have to deal with the deadly jayjujaymes and the tail slashers that roam these parts."

Aeris thought a moment, "Really? Somehow... I don't believe it."

"No!" Yuffie said adamantly, "it's really tough!"

"There they are, catch 'em!"

At that moment, many things happened simultaneously. From either side of the plateau, two Shinra MPs ran towards them, their guns raised as they shouted, "Drop your weapons!" Aeris' and Cloud's PHS crackled with a message.

"Yuffie's--" static "--trust--" it was Tifa's voice.

Yuffie sprinted towards the bridge and out of sight.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!!" one of the MPs shouted.

"Hey, wait," the other MP said, "These aren't the guys we're looking for."

"No," the first MP replied, "These guys are much worse. I remember you, Cloud Strife. You leapt onto a train to avoid riot control, you bombed two reactors before I blew you off the top plate, and you massacred the Shinra building, and slashed my motorcycle tires. I was in traction for two weeks because of you, now drop your fucking weapon!"

Cloud moved nothing but his eyes. He closed them. He briefly thought, _'Man, that grunt and I go way back,'_ but he let it go. Summoning lightning needed his full concentration. He cleared his mind and tapped into his materia, selecting the sentient matter--

Nothing happened. He couldn't do it. It was as if... as if the materia wasn't even there.

"Are you asleep?!" shouted the MP, "I said drop your weapon now drop it!"

"Cloud!" Tifa shouted, she had arrived at the top of the cliff. "Yuffie's--"

The other MP pointed his gun at her, and the first grabbed Aeris and pulled her right next to him, placing the gun to her temple.

"So much as move, Cloud," the MP laughed, "and she's dead."

"--stolen all of our materia." Tifa finished.

They couldn't use fire, they couldn't use lightning, they couldn't use cure. They were as helpless as primitives with sharp sticks. Cloud drew his weapon and stabbed it into the dirt, stepping away from it.

"Who were you looking for?" Cloud asked.

"Don't say a word unless I tell you to!"

Cid dropped his spear to the ground, and Tifa was rounded up with the rest of them. Aeris' hands crept to her back, where her staff was concealed, but Cloud shook his head at her. There was reasoning behind this.

"Where are you taking us?" Tifa asked.

"Shut up!" The lesser MP stepped onto the bridge first, and then the prisoners, followed by the more experienced, angrier MP, who dragged along Cloud's sword behind him.

They were prisoners now, the four of them, and they stepped onto the creaky wooden bridge, held together with razor weed.

"Ey..." Cid whined, "Where the hell's that damn kid?"

They looked about the bridge, but saw only deep chasm below, and plateau on either side.

"I'm never gonna forgive her!" Tifa shouted, "She was after our materia from the beginning."

"She didn't get all of our materia," Cloud said, "Aeris still has her mother's materia in her hair."

"That's strictly ornamental," Aeris said, "Yuffie tried to steal it when we met, remember? It doesn't do anything."

"Quiet over there!" shouted the MP.

They reached the second plateau and began the descent into the ruins of Wutai.

From the top of the plateau it just looked like shrubbery with large white boulders poking from the treetops every so often.

But as they dipped below the treeline, they could very plainly see that it was not the case. Six years had given the Planet much time to grow plants over the ruins, but much of the destruction still remained. The boulders they saw where the heads of former stone statues, now the spherical top pieces were all that was left, large vines of ivy grew from the trees up to the stonehead's eyes, resembling tears of natural green. Their eyes were upturned, as if they had once been smiling, but with their mouths now a crater, made by some Shinra missile, they looked like weeping decapitated babies. The ancient Wutaian gods.

The trees had been eating away at the grounded roofs of houses these last six years since the war's end, but the brilliant red stones still emerged from beneath the roots, the blood long since washed away. The MPs stepped on the ruins and laughed about Shinra's might, and it filled Cloud with rage. He felt the sudden urge to give the order now – his team would know what to do. But he had to be patient. They were lost out here without the MPs to guide them to the nearest city.

"Hey Frieze, you fight in the war?" the lesser MP asked.

The one who had thrown the grenade at Cloud last month was named Frieze, and Cloud took note of that. He was, after all, responsible for his entire relationship with Aeris, even though he had caused Cloud quite a bit of discomfort that eventful weekend in Midgar.

Aeris stepped over a half buried doll, made from home fabrics and now returning to the Planet, just like the owner of that doll, her parents, her city. Aeris pondered the fragility of life when she wasn't preoccupied with being a captive of Shinra once more.

"Naw, I was stationed in Midgar until chocobo-head here fucked me up bad," the MP said, "Now all I do is run around the world looking for _him_."

"Sephiroth?" Cloud asked.

"Shut up," the MP said, and then, under his breath, "I wish."

"I would have loved to fight in the war," the lesser MP said to Frieze, "Such heroics, doing the right thing."

"The right thing?!" Tifa asked, "You call wiping out a country to near extinction just because they wouldn't buy your react--"

Frieze cocked his gun and Tifa shushed.

"Those damned Wutaians, look at this, worshipping gods," the lesser MP laughed, "Religion is for fools."

They walked out of that town, through clearings and between mountain passes, and they entered another town, just as ruined. A civilization gone, such history, all the foreign architecture, the lost technology, so many lives lost. Aeris teared up at one point and Tifa held her as they walked, which the MPs allowed.

"I need a smoke," Cid said, and everyone had to stop so that the MPs could keep careful watch of everything that Cid was doing. He pulled a cigarette out of his pack which was between his goggle strap and his head, he placed it in his mouth, and then, smiling, he pulled out his lighter from the other side quickly, and it made the MPs twitch. He paused before flipping it open, watching their eyes. He was enjoying it. He lit his cigarette and continued walking. "Some protectors of the Planet you are," Cid laughed at Cloud, "You can't even overtake a couple of MPs."

Finally in the distance, as night was falling, they saw Da-Chao. The mountain region that had been hand-carved to look like the five Wutaian gods in harmony, twisting and winding around each other, one of them held his fat hand up to the sky, pointing to the clouds with two fingers. They were all shaped like humans, although, if Cloud remembered, it was a polymorphed form, for blessing. Below the carved figures, far far below was a small uprising of Wutaian buildings, a disctinctly natural red colour. Through the village, a small serene stream ambled towards the sea, and quaint, picturesque curved bridges crossed over the bright blue water.

"Wutai city," Frieze said, "The only remaining--"

Cloud nodded at Tifa, and in one punch Frieze was dead. Cloud reached down and caught his sword before it hit the ground.

The lesser MP died moments later, due to a full metal staff thrown right through his body. Cid stood in awe of their fighting ability. He had been with these people for three weeks, but they were under the facade of peace loving hippies. He hadn't expected such brutality.

"Holy shit!" he coughed, "You guys kick ass!"


	83. Book 4: The Spirit of the Turks

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**The Spirit of the Turks**

Reeve began the long walk to the president's desk. It was always dark in Midgar, which relieved him. He had been sleeping through the days as of late. He felt like he was in two places at once, and he could sense a general detachment from humanity. On occasion, he would retreat to the staff lounges for a bath or a workout, and on the rarest of occasions he would visit the prisoners of war on the sixty-sixth floor, bringing them television sets and a decent meal, but most of his time was spent in his office, he was working on the AVLANCHE problem. But he could sense communication with everyone slipping, people he came into contact -- real contact with. Even his conversations with Rufus were disjointed and often made no sense. Because of this, he had been partial to remaining in his office, his double life, almost. Midgar seemed terribly dull, the world outside of his office was a twisted place. In his office, he knew right from wrong, he pretended he was something he wasn't; he had access to more than he ever had. And to think, he created the world he hated. He didn't want to see the president; he didn't want to see vice-president Heidegger, who was, of course, hanging around the desk, laughing as he usually did. But he had something to report, and after he did that, he could retreat back into his office. Heidegger didn't seem to get that Rufus hated him, and it was terribly funny to Reeve. Still, it seemed as if Rufus hated everything, it was clear he had lost the zeal – an almost arrogance – that he had as acting vice-president.

"Sir!" he called as he ran up to the desk. He wasn't as lazy as Heidegger; he would run if he needed to, so many weeks sitting in a chair, staring at lights on a screen.

"Reeve," Rufus called back, "Do you have a report on AVALANCHE?"

"Yes," Reeve said, "They're in Wutai."

"Excellent," Rufus said, "I'll have the garrison there take them in, get our agent to take them to the pub and I'll alert the twenty-third to surround the place."

"Oh," Reeve said, "Uhm... I can't."

Rufus gave him a quizzical look. "What do you mean you can't?"

"I knew it!" Heidegger pointed a finger at Reeve, "I knew that he sided with them. He's a traitor, Mr. President."

"Hold it, Heidegger," Rufus hushed, "What do you mean you can't?"

"I can't," Reeve said, "Because the agent isn't with them."

"Not with them?!" Rufus shouted, "Well then just where the hell are they?"

"With the others."

"Well," Rufus flicked his hair back, "They've divided their forces. I wonder if this was Cloud's plan all along – gathering allies like a warring nation. Tell our agent to get over to where they are."

"Typical of a half-breed Wutaian like you, Reeve!" Heidegger spat.

"Don't you dare bring up my heritage," Reeve snapped at the man in green, ignoring the ongoing disrespect of being called by his first name around the office. "_I_ built Midgar with the late former president – you killed some Wutaians a while back, and killed your way to the top here. You're pathetic, you're a disgrace. Good day, sirs."

Reeve nodded and returned to his office, where he slept through the rest of the day.

* * *

"Drink, Rude!" 

The pale hand slapped Rude hard on his back and nearly knocked his sunglasses off. He fixed them and looked at his smiling partner. Reno sat, as usual, smiling faithfully, holding a primitive wooden cup of Wutaian alcohol close to Rude's face. He could smell the alcohol and his nose tickled. He accepted the drink as Reno sat down with his own glass, and one for Elena who sat unamused at the other end of the table.

"How long have we been a team?" Reno asked Rude, and then looked briefly at Elena, "There have been hard times, but all in all, I'm glad I did it."

"To the Turks!" Rude said, lifting his glass. Reno repeated and knocked their glasses together. "Cheers!"

Elena was about to do the same when the door to the Turtle's Paradise slid open and four figures walked in, looking very aggravated. Reno and Rude were already pretty plastered, but Elena recognized them immediately.

They looked out of place in the building, wearing modern, eastern clothing that clashed with the dark red oak walls and doors made of papyrus. The leader wore a purple-blue, and had frighteningly yellow hair. The woman to his left wore pink and red, and if they didn't clash with each other, they certainly didn't match the dark red oak pillars that created the skeletal frame of the Turtle's Paradise. The woman to his right wore black and white, and her hair was an overpowering ebony colour. She didn't clash, sure, but she certainly stood out, with her extraordinarily long legs and breasts so impressive it gave Elena a whole new reason to hate her. There was a non-distinct man in a jacket and pants smoking a cigarette, and he didn't seem too interested in what was going on.

"Y, you?!" she stood, "How did you get here?!"

Cloud looked up at the Turks, and he squinted his eyes as his jaw hung open. "Oh, what next?" he asked, unamused.

"I guess its fate that brought us together," she said, "Get ready to die!"

Cloud drew his sword and a few uninvolved patrons screamed and ran for a corner of the room.

Elena tapped Reno on the shoulder, as if to wake him up. Reno looked back at Cloud and his friends with the same unwilling disposition. He turned back to his drink.

"Elena, you talk too much."

Elena shot him a glare, "What?!"

Reno reclined from their sitting position on the floor of the restaurant. He rested a loose hand on the ground and sipped the last of his umpteenth drink. "What are we doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Elena stood at attention, as if reporting something very grand. "We're taking our vacation," she announced, "and resting up from our work."

"And now," Reno stood and walked to the bar, "our vacation is ruined. Barkeep, two more of whatever we've been drinking."

"But--" Elena started.

"Even the booze tastes bad now," Rude said, fixing his glasses.

Reno returned with two more drinks, "Aw, we can solve that," he laughed, "Just drink more!"

Elena stood facing Cloud. The ex-SOLDIER still had his sword in hand, although not quite sure what to make of the situation.

"For fuck's sake, Elena, sit down."

Elena obeyed Reno and sat down, apologizing, but she looked at Cloud as he sheathed his sword. "You're lucky all right," she warned, "but get out of my sight. The next time we meet, I won't be so nice."

Cloud was about to ask them if they had seen Yuffie, but they were already making a private toast "To Elena! Maybe if she relaxes some day she'll get some! Cheers to the Turks!"

Moments after Cloud and his friends left the restaurant, three MPs ran inside.

"Our reports were right," they announced, and the restaurant patrons, still cowering in the corner, cringed. "He is here on vacation! We've finally found him! Get the Turks here for back-up."

"What a drag," Reno chuckled.

"What was that?" The MP stammered, taken aback by Reno's blatant drunkenness.

"Right now," Reno held up his wooden cup as a trophy, "We're off duty and can't run off to save your asses!"

"We know you're off duty, but--"

"I'm off duty, he's off duty, everybody's on vacation. If you knew that, then don't bother us! Lookin' at you is makin' me sober."

"But you all have orders from headquarters to look for him too."

Reno didn't move, he merely drank a little more.

"All right, that's it, then," said the MP, "We'll get him without any help from the Turks. But don't think that headquarters isn't going to hear about this!"

The MPs left the bar and once again Elena rose from their cross-legged positions on the floor.

"Reno," she hummed, "do you think that was really such a good idea? I mean, it that the way a professional, a Turk would act?"

"Elena," Reno sat up and looked her square in the eye, his red strands of hair held back by his sunglasses, perpetually stationed atop his forehead. "Don't misunderstand. A pro isn't someone who sacrifices himself for his job. That's just a fool."

Elena paused, and looked at Reno's partner. "Rude?"

No reply.

"Well, I don't buy that," she confirmed after long consideration. "Goodbye."

Rude made a concerned face as she left the Turtle's Paradise, but Reno leaned forward. "Relax. She's not a child. Let her have her way now."

* * *

A systematic intrusion on every house finally led them to the mansion beside the Pagoda, and it housed the leader of the city, and king of all that remained in Wutai. Godo Kisaragi, descended from a long line of ninja kings before him.

Barging into his house without knocking was Cloud's style. The double front doors were made of red oak. Inside were eerily shiny hardwood floors. There was the sound of running water – as if the gentle streams that ran through town flowed through the house as well. Eerily, still, was the faint but distinct mewing of at least a dozen cats somewhere in the manor. The front hall led off into two hallways – each lined with wooden sliding doorframes filled with yellowing paper.

"Are you sure we're allowed to be in here?" Aeris asked.

Cloud didn't answer – truth be told he wasn't sure that it had been such a great idea – but the doors had not been locked, surely that was an invitation to enter?

Sliding over one of the paper doors, he found the source of the water sounds. The door led to another long passageway the ran along an interior pond. A school of Koi darted underneath the shimmering surface where Cloud could see the reflection of Aeris and him. He moved along the edge of the water to the door opposite them. Tifa and Cid were behind Aeris, distorted in the water. There were several sparkles underneath the sand at the bottom of the pond. Cloud saw them as materia stones, although they had been buried long ago, probably stored during the war to keep them away from Shinra's prying hands.

The next door slid open to find king Godo sitting on the hardwood – cross-legged and meditating. Behind him were numerous floor pillows, gorgeously decorated. Godo seemed not to notice them.

"Excuse me," Cloud said.

"Oh my goodness!" Godo said, opening his eyes and looking at Cloud. Nothing else moved except the balls of his eyes, not even his eyebrows twitched.

"I'm looking for Yuffie, she lives around here."

"Yuffie? Nope, never heard of her." His eyes slid closed and he returned to his meditative state.

Cloud wasn't satisfied with this answer. "Hey!"

Godo's eyes slid open again, "You again?" his long, thin moustache twitched, "I told you once, and I'm telling you again, I don't know her."

"I've looked everywhere for her, I have three other people with me."

"Listen! I said I don't know her! There isn't anyone named Yuffie here in Wutai!"

Godo stood, suddenly, although it seemed to Cloud as if he flew up, his legs merely extending behind him until he could stand normally. It was incredibly fast and a little scary. Godo looked at Cloud with curiosity.

"Never seen you around here before," he said, "Lately, I've been seeing alot of Shinra soldiers around here. You wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?"

Cloud said nothing, and it was wise to.

"I don't care about who you are," Godo said, and it was quite apparent to Cloud that common was not Godo's first language, "if you're in trouble with the Shinra, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I don't want the Shinra hanging around here looking over my shoulder."

"What's with you, you coward?!" Yuffie's voice screamed from overhead, and from the rafters she fell between Cloud and Godo.

"Yuffie!" Godo cried.

"You scared of the Shinra?!" Yuffie taunted, "Then why don't you fall in line and obey them, just like all the other towns!"

Yuffie briefly turned to Cloud and the others in the room.

"Those guys," she said, "are the ones who are really fighting the Shinra."

Godo cursed in a foreign language, "What would you know about this?"

"You get beaten once," Yuffie spat, "and then that's it? What happened to the mighty Wutai I used to know?"

"No kid like you is going to talk to me like that! You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

"That's my style!" Yuffie boasted playfully, "And it's my own business, not yours! Don't you try and dictate what I should do!"

Cid and Tifa were ready to catch Yuffie on the way out, and Cloud and Aeris simply observed. Yuffie, of all people, standing up to the king of her home country, it was something he had never expected of her.

"Style?!" Godo shouted, "Dictate?! Throwin' around fancy common tongue words. You're a miserable excuse for a daughter!"

"Hmph!" Yuffie yelled, "You're a sad excuse for a father!"

Godo took a swing at Yuffie, who dodged and ran out of the room. Godo took a few deep breaths, and turned his back on Cloud.

"Take your things and get out of here now," he ordered. "To protect Wutai, we cannot afford to stand up to Shinra."

When Cloud and Aeris left Godo's house, Tifa and Cid were struggling with Yuffie in front of the pagoda. An interested grey dog whimpered at them, and Cid, while still apprehending the young princess, kicked the air at the dog, who obeyed and wandered back into town.

"You can't get away," Cloud said, drawing his sword.

"I know," Yuffie said, giving up, "You win. I've stored the materia in a safe place, follow me."

"Not good enough," Cloud said, "This sword rides on your shoulder all the way there."

Cloud walked behind the princess of Wutai, and rested his sword on her shoulder, the blade pressing precariously against her thin neck. Cid and Tifa walked on either side of her, ready to pounce should she attempt to flee.

Aeris kept close to Cloud, which was distracting for him, because her presence made him feel anything but violent, and since her life was not in danger, he felt his guard slipping.

Yuffie walked to her secret hiding place, which was hidden across from Godo's mansion, under a large shrine enclosing a tribal gong. They stepped inside the side entrance and down a series of winding stairs.

"I've been hearing that ever since I was little," Yuffie said idly as they walked, "Shinra blah blah blah. Before I was born, Wutai was a lot more crowded, and more important. You saw what it looks like now, right? Just a resort town. After we lost the war, we got peace, but with that, we lost something else. Now look at Wutai..."

She paused on the stairs and Cloud felt the sword moving up and down slightly with her shoulders.

"That's why..." Yuffie continued, a strain in her voice, "If I had lots of materia I could..." she sniffled.

"Listen, Yuffie," Cloud said as coldly as he could at that moment, although it was difficult, "I don't care about the history of Wutai or your feelings. You've got our materia and I want it back. Now. If you give it back now, we'll drop the whole thing."

"I know, I know that..." Yuffie said between sobs, and they arrived at the bottommost dungeon. "That..." she sniffed and pointed to two levers at the other end of the room, "switch... the lever on the left... materia's..." sniffle, "in there."

Cloud, Tifa, Aeris and Cid walked into the room. Cloud approached the two levers and was faced with a very tough decision. Who knows what the levers might do. Yuffie said the lever on the left would present them with the materia, but he wasn't sure if he could trust her. On the other hand, pulling the wrong lever might result in something very nasty, a trap Yuffie had made in case something like this had happened.

Aeris stepped up to him and said, "If you don't trust her, and something bad happens, how are you going to feel?"

The left lever was pulled, and Yuffie was just out of range of the steel cage that fell from the ceiling and trapped everyone inside. Yuffie laughed and danced and said, "Never trust anyone that easily! The materia is mine! Tough!"

Yuffie began to exit the room, but stopped and turned around. "You want materia? Then go find it yourself! Yeah, that's right, and when you're looking, remember you gotta steal it." She chuckled to herself, "Nyuk, nyuk. Steel! You gotta steel it! Get it?"

They only replied with a cold stare.

"See ya!" she laughed, and danced up the stairs.

They waited and waited for a long time for her to come back. But she never did. Cloud couldn't reach the lever from where he was.

They waited until they passed out from hunger and exhaustion.

* * *

An echo from the staircase jerked them awake, it sounded like a frog attempting to sing the hits from the opera "Loveless." Like a dog practicing poetry. 

Like a cat falling down a staircase.

"Ow! You are the clumsiest thing on the Planet, did you know that? I don't know why I ride around on you anyway, and you suck at telling fortunes!"

"Cait Sith!"

"Aeris?" came the reply from the staircase, "Have I finally found you guys?"

"We're locked down here," Cid said, "That numbskull princess ran off with all their materia."

Mog bounded into the room, with Cait Sith barely clammering on.

"Princess?" he asked.

"Yeah, a real brat, too." Cid continued.

"Well, I knew that much," Cait Sith laughed. "How do I get you guys outta this?"

"Turn the left lever back up and the cage should go up," Cloud said.

Cait Sith went to the lever, but then he stopped.

"Cait Sith?" Tifa asked, "What's taking so long."

"Huh?" Cait Sith asked, "Oh, I always forget which is left and which is right. It's like I was manufactured yesterday!"

The lever was pulled and the cage lifted, retracting back to its place in the ceiling.

"Has it been three days yet?" asked Cloud.

"Nope," Cait Sith said, "but some MPs attacked us. Barret and the others took care of them, and I was the only one who could run forever without getting tired. So here I am!"

"Well, thank you for saving us."

"Let go! I said let GO!"

"That's Yuffie's voice!" Tifa said.

"She's upstairs, let's go." Cloud drew his sword and ran up the long stairs, followed by his four companions.

They burst through a door and into a brightly coloured room. Yuffie was being held by a man in a tacky grey suit, but there was someone else in the room.

"You!" Cloud shouted.

"Hohi! Hohihi!" Don Corneo laughed, inspecting Yuffie, who struggled to no avail against her captors. "A new chicky!" he chuckled, "And so silky soft. She likes to wear nearly nothing, no?"

Corneo's chunky hands wandered up Yuffie's bare legs to her short shorts, where he felt around with glee, his piglike eyes rolling to the back of his head. He danced around in a Wutaian women's gown, the only thing in the city that was big enough and fancy enough for a gluttonous dilletante like him.

Yuffie screamed in terror.

"Oh! So soft and juicy!" Corneo snorted, "A lovely bride indeed! Two for one, in fact! Ho ho!"

Corneo continued fondling the princess, rubbing his face in her small, youthful breasts. Cloud couldn't bare to watch, and he noticed that behind Corneo's massive girth (he seemed to have widened, even on the run) that another lackey was holding Elena of the Turks in thrall.

"You're gonna regret this!" Elena shouted, but the lackeys pulled the girls up a staircase at the back of the room.

The party ran into the room. "Corneo!" Cloud shouted.

"Oh my! It's you!" Corneo squealed, "My three brides to be! Still wearing dresses, Cloud?"

"No, I think that's your domain, now."

"That's him!" shouted MPs as they burst open the back door. "There he is! Fire!"

Corneo's eyes grew wide and he dove out of the way as the MPs open fired upon the room. Cloud leapt from the bullets and knocked Aeris down to the floor with him. Tifa and Cid were quickly on the ground as well, and the only creature big enough to get shot was poor stuffed Mog, who was riddled with bullets. Fortunately, most just damaged the fluff and not a single one hit the electronics inside. Cait Sith, however, was screaming bloody murder and ducking for cover.

Smoke filled the room, and dust and fur from Mog. Corneo held a small pistol and he wormed around on the floor, shooting at the open door.

"Kill everything in there!" came an order.

"That ain't good!" Cid leapt to his feet and threw his spear and the doorway. An MP with the spear lodged in his chest fell through, and Corneo picked up the gun.

The smoke rose slightly and Corneo and AVALANCHE could see each other. Corneo shook his head disapprovingly at their operation, but everyone was more concerned with Shinra's gunhappy squad.

"Hey, fatty!" Cid yelled, and was surprised to find that Corneo responded to that. "Toss me my spear!"

Corneo did as requested, and Cid through the spear again into the blinding sunlight. Someone screamed outside and ran in, firing blindly. Cloud rose and quickened his death by delievering a fatal blow to the midsection. Cid's spear was retrieved from the man's shoulder.

There were no more MPs, just the eerie silence and awkwardness between Don Corneo and his enemies. The man scrambled to his feet and ran into the sunlight. Cloud ran up the staircase but arrived in a trap door under the gong, enshrined in the red oak tabernacle. The Don was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

They regrouped in the courtyard, making sure everyone was all right. Without the healing materia, they couldn't chance being injured. They only had a small supply of potions on them, the rest of the supplies were back at the plane. 

"Hmm..." came a humming noise from behind them, "That Corneo is good at escaping."

Reno and Rude walked past them, Rude said nothing but Elena's name.

"Let's go, Rude," Reno said, "We'll give them a taste of what the Turks can do."

Rude nodded and ran off towards the main city.

"That sounded pretty good," Reno laughed and turned to the party. He had his electro-magnetic rod resting on his shoulder, his usual slack demeanour never ceasing. "Hey, Cloud."

"Hey, Reno." Cloud said, "Corneo's got Elena."

"Yeah, I figured. That's going to make thing a little difficult, especially with Shinra's entire twenty-third garrison killed singlehandedly by Corneo."

"Corneo took Yuffie," Cloud changed the subject, "And without Yuffie, there's no way to get our materia back."

"So we're both after Corneo." Reno thought for a moment, tapping the rod against his shoulder once or twice, "Don't misunderstand," he smirked, "We have no intention of joining you. But for now, we'll agree not to bother each other. That's all."

"That's fine," Cloud nodded, "We have absolutely no intention of cooperating with the Turks either."

They looked at each other and smiled.

"Now, uh..." Cloud said, "Just what direction did Corneo run off to?"

Reno laughed, "Nice attitude. Wanna look?"

Cloud, Aeris, Tifa, Cid, Cait Sith, Rude and Reno ran through Wutai, each barging into houses. For a long time, the streets were filled with shouts between AVALANCHE and the Turks.

"Not here!"

"Not here either!"

"Nothing!"

After the last house was searched, they wound up at the base of the Da Chao mountain path.

"He's not in the city," Reno concluded, "So he's either left, or he's up in this mountain."

"Let's look in the mountain, then," Cloud agreed.

"We're gonna split into two. You do whatever you want, but don't endanger Elena. And we won't do anything to that girl, Yuffie."

Cloud nodded and the two groups separated.

The groups ran into each other every so often, as the mountain path was winding, and crossed back on itself many times. They ran up and down the shapes of giant people, a tunnel began in a man's ear and came out another's mouth, leading to a steep decline on a stone tongue which licked the arm of another man, which they ran across until they came to where Don Corneo was.

* * *

The Don was standing in the upturned palm of the only statue on the mountain who was not scowling. He faced the giant carved head of the god, where, on the wide open eye, his two captives were tied like tiny Xs. Yuffie, on the right, squirmed and thrashed about. "Let me go!" she yelled, which only excited Corneo more. 

"Hmm! Delicious!" he drooled, "scrumptious! I think I've found a new hobby!"

But it was time to get down to business, he needed to choose which would be his blushing bride, and which would fall twenty metres below the carved human form of Leviathan to the jagged rocks at the base of the mountain. He had a simple button to press and the ropes would be cut!

"I wonder who I will choose!" the don laughed to himself, and eyed Elena up and down.

"Hey!" Elena shouted, "I'm one of the Turks! Don't you think you can get away with this!"

The don looked at Yuffie.

"Don't even look at me, you creep!" Yuffie thrust away at her ropes, "If I knew this was gonna happen, I would've taken rope escape lessons more seriously!"

"I've made my choice!" Corneo giggled, "My companion for the night will be..."

The don paused then, because he loved the girls in suspense. He turned to Yuffie.

"The cheerful one!"

Yuffie thrashed with a renewed vigour.

"GROSS-NESS!" she cried, "Don't mess with me, old man! You don't even have any materia!"

"Ooh! And she's so saucy, too!" The don began to dance, and touch himself and squeal with orgasmic delight as he readied the button, and when his climax came he would push the button sending the reject to her doom, which would make him squeal and come all over again.

But the corpse of his lackey being thrown to his feet made him drop the remote, and while he couldn't help his continuing ejaculation, he certainly wasn't in the mood for games anymore.

"That's it!" Cloud yelled, bloody sword drawn.

"Hee-haw!" the don couldn't see, he was dizzy from the rush, "What's going on?! Who's there?!"

Cloud ran up extremely close so that the don could come back down to reality, with the blade right at his throat.

"Oh you, old acquaintances!" Corneo laughed.

"That fall into your sewer really hurt," Tifa said.

"Oh yes, you killed my little Apps," Corneo said, somewhat forlornly, "You don't know how much I've suffered since then--"

"We don't want to hear it!" Cloud barked. "Let them go or I will kill you right here, and let them go myself."

"Please!" Corneo fell to his knees, "Please don't kill me! Wait just a second!"

"SHUT UP!" Cloud yelled.

"Just listen to me," Corneo wept, "It won't take long. Why do you think a bad guy like my would swallow his pride and plea for his life?"

"Is this another multiple choice question?"

Corneo nodded.

"Fine, get it over with."

"Why do you think he would plead for his life? Is is "A" - Because he's ready to die, "B" - because he's sure to win or "C" because he's clueless?"

Cloud didn't answer, it frankly didn't matter, Corneo had a trick up his sleeve.

"Time's up!" Corneo laughed, and pressed a button on the remote.

The stone eyes in Leviathan's face rotated, flipping the girls upside down. They screamed in fright.

"If I push these buttons," Corneo pointed and danced away from Cloud, "they'll fall upside down, and we'll have squashed tomatoes!"

Cloud backed up, and looked at the women who were strapped to the eyes of the god.

"Now," Corneo said, "You, your cat and smoking man leave these women behind, I'm adding them to my collection. I guess I'm the one laughing last!"

Corneo hee-hawed at them until Reno's voice came from behind Cloud.

"No, that would be us."

"The Turks!" Corneo stepped back, startled.

Cloud and the others cleared the way for Reno, who walked slowly towards Corneo, tapping the rod against his shoulder. He was smoking a cigarette, and for the first time since he and Cloud had met, his sunglasses were covering his eyes. "You knew this was gonna happen ever since you leaked that secret. You've been on the run a long while, Corneo, but now we're going to take care of you. Personally."

"Damnit!" Corneo said, his hand quivering over the button, "Then they're all goin' with me!"

From behind the stone head, Rude darted out onto a small path and threw a tiny dagger, which hit its mark right in Corneo's neck. The don stumbled back and dropped the remote, teetered backwards and fell off the fingers, barely managing to grab a hold on the end, and he hung there, above the jagged rocks.

"Nice timing, Rude," Reno smiled.

Rude put a calm hand up graciously. "Let's get to work."

Reno strutted up to the don and threw the dying cigarette down on his hand, where he stepped on it. The burning was horrifying, the don would have let go had Reno's foot not kept him in place. So the don was stuck there, his fingers breaking, his skin burning.

"All right, Corneo," Reno said, "This'll be over quick, so listen up. Why do you think we went to all the trouble of teaming up with AVALANCHE, just to get to you?"

"I... I don't know!" Corneo stammered.

"Oh, no, no, don," Reno laughed, "I haven't given you any choices yet. They are "A" - Because we were ready to die, "B" - because we were sure of victory, or "C" - because we were clueless. Which is it?"

Corneo nodded frantically. "Two! Number two!"

Reno laughed, "All wrong." He wiggled the foot, breaking every bone in the don's hand.

"No! Wait, sto..."

Reno released his foot and the don fell, his last word turning into a hideous shriek before the crunch at the bottom.

"The correct answer was..." Reno said, "because it's our job."

"I never expected you to come help!" Elena said, "Thank you so much!"

"Don't act so weak," Reno said, pushing his sunglasses back up to his forehead, "You're a Turk."

"I guess," Cid said, "Thanks for today."

Reno's PHS rang. He reached into the inside of his suit jacket and pulled it out. He pressed the answer button and lifted the thing to his face. "Hello? ...Yes, this is Reno. Yes... yes... I'll get on it right away."

Reno hung up and put the PHS and looked at it in wonderment. He looked at Cloud and shook his head, smiling.

"Was that the company?" Elena asked.

"Yeah," Reno smiled, "They want us to find Cloud Strife."

Reno put the PHS back into his jacket; Cloud still hadn't sheathed his sword. A long pause ensued.

"Are we on?" Rude asked after a long while.

Reno ran his fingers through his brilliant red hair. "No," he said, "Today, we're off duty."


	84. Book 4: Wutai

_**Disclaimer: **__I take some liberties with Yuffie's past here as the story begins to take a darker and more adult road from here on out. I'm prepared for any criticisms you may have about it, and I won't run away from them like a little ninny.  
_

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land  
**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Wutai**

Yuffie kept the materia in a small chest inside her hideout, concealed in a cranny behind the statue of Leviathan, in his true form, which was a large serpent wrapped around itself, usually represented as an irate, hissing creature. Cloud often wondered if Leviathan had just been the ancient Wutaians explanation for a wayward Midgar Zolom. To the people of the far west, Leviathan was the god of the sea, ruler of all water. Behind his stone representation, Yuffie had placed all of her stolen materia - from AVALANCHE and others. Upon opening it, Cloud saw more than just their lost few stones, he saw a huge collection.

"Take all of them," Yuffie said, "They're useless to a town that refuses to fight. They'd be better against Sephiroth anyway, whatever he's planning to do at the Temple of the Ancients."

"We'll take only what you took from us," Cloud said coldly, and reached into the chest. He picked up a green orb at a time, and tossed them to Tifa and Aeris.

"Try these out, see if they're ours."

Tifa closed her eyes, and glowed green for a moment, "This is cure." she said.

"Mine," Aeris said, and they traded. Tifa cast fire on the rug, and Yuffie huffed to herself. Cloud handed them others, Nanaki's fire stone, Cloud's lightning stone, Cloud's ice stone. He considered leaving Ramuh behind – the last few times Cloud had tried to summon the apparition of the Cetra god, the old man had refused to fight on account of moral ambiguity. He paired it with the Shiva amulet, the two red summoning stones clinked against one another as they hung off his belt. That seemed to be all of them. Cloud stood.

"I can understand if you don't take me back," Yuffie said, "but I know I was wrong. I won't cause trouble if you let me stay."

"Then why would you be staying with us?" Cloud asked, and Yuffie looked at him surprised. He had guessed it, she had been after their materia from the beginning; she hadn't cared about the Planet or Sephiroth at all. She nodded quietly and they left her hiding place, through the broken door and out of the town.

Yuffie stayed motionless for a while after they left, her eyes dully fixated on the box of materia that he had been saving over the years. The materia she had stolen, from Fort Condor, Gongaga, travellers, it lay in the box, hidden, waiting for Wutai's great moment of retaliation against Shinra.

And she realized what her life was meant for. She took a walk up the Da Chao mountain path, her glance avoiding the rotting corpse of Don Corneo.

_'Some of those Turk guys weren't so bad,'_ she thought as she climbed, _'When they're off duty, anyway. And I guess, Cloud and them weren't so bad, either...'_

She sat atop the upturned palm of one of the five gods, the one presenting something to the sky. It was her, at that particular moment, presented in the palm of the hand. She looked over her city, how small it seemed from high up there. She could see the figures in the distance, their shadows long in the low sun. They were carrying plane parts into the sunset. The sky was red and orange, and from up here, the grass looked red and orange, with five long streaks of black where the shadows of AVALANCHE were. She could even make out which one was Mog, it bounced as it moved. She would miss that stupid stuffed animal, and the stupid cat that rode on it, barking orders at everyone and being generally useless.

She smiled at how forgiving Cloud was. How he let Cait Sith tag along with them, how he wasn't demanding of Vincent, the morbid, cryptic wierdo. He wasn't very demanding of anyone, now that she thought about it. Even her, and she supposed that what she did was a terrible sin.

Sin. What a word. Wutaians die, and their souls are judged by their sins and their good deeds, by the five sacred gods. And then, if they have been good, they are allowed into the river of souls. She supposed that wasn't so different from Lifestream, although according to Bugenhagen, everything goes back into the Lifestream, sinner or not. That didn't give her very much of an incentive to do good.

But what was the right thing, anyhow? She crossed her arms as her legs dangled off the mountain's thumb. The right thing was protecting Wutai, it was her country anyhow, she supposed one day she would be queen of it all, descended from Shinobi, literally a ninja. Blessed by Leviathan, and Odin, and Kjata, and Hades, the lesser, elemental gods. She was doing what was the best for her country. Not what her good for nothing father did. That was the reason that her and Cloud could never be friends, a conflict of interest, a different idea of what good was. Animals had it much simpler, no concept of good nor evil, just instinct.

Yuffie was sixteen, old enough to brave the Pagoda if she wanted to. Old enough to be the blushing bride and rape victim of Don Corneo had Cloud not stepped in and saved her. Saved her. Saved the location of his materia, is more like, she shrugged. Who needed him, anyway? He was a stupid, spikey-headed, materia hogging goody-two shoes, with his stupid ideals about saving the world from the clutches of Sephiroth. Without Yuffie, they would be dead within minutes.

And then what? Sephiroth would take the world? Get to the Promised Land, or the Temple of the Ancients, maybe both, and fulfill his evil destiny. And where would that put Wutai. If Sephiroth was first on Cloud's priority list, and Shinra second, knowing all they knew about Shinra.

Was it true? Had she gleaned some of Cloud's sickening nobility? How much did she not care about Sephiroth and the Planet?

Braving the Pagoda suddenly seemed like a grand idea. She stood and watched the sun dip behind the mountains, setting upon her city, before she began her descent.

_'Goodbye, Cloud Strife,'_ she thought, _'Goodbye AVALANCHE.'_

* * *

Cid spent all evening repairing the Tiny Bronco, and while he couldn't get any parts to help it fly, he could make the propellers move on their own, which would carry them through the water if they didn't hit any storms. Cid muttered about 'Lady Luck' all night, a term which Cloud had never heard before. There were so many theologies, and philosophies out there. Wutai had their Five Gods, the Cetra had a plethora more, and they believed that the gods sustained the Lifestream, this school of thought also led those in Cosmo Canyon, although the idea of gods was not prominent to Cloud's observation. Those who abandoned the Cetra formed the idea of a single God who controlled the actions of everyone, and his counterpart, the king of hell, and they fought over the allegience of the human race, those who sinned would go to hell: the fires of oblivion, those who didn't would go to heaven amongst the stars. That was widely accepted for thousands of years, until Shinra proved that all the energy to run the world could be found from underneath the ground. And thus, the world became widely atheist, recognizing science as a separate entity, having little knowledge of current religion but a basic enough knowledge to know what the term 'Ancient' meant, and enough habit from God-worshipping ancestors to use figures of speech that included hell and the subsequent banishing to it.

Faithless terms, such as 'Lady Luck,' 'Fate,' and 'Mother Nature,' were commonplace now, and Cloud wasn't sure what to make of it all. The Tiny Bronco would be repaired by dawn.

* * *

Yuffie remembered through infant eyes the marching of the armies shaking the foundations of Da Chao, sullying the sacred golden green earth with their war machines and armoured chocobos.

She cowered in a corner as her mother was worked in and killed and still the bloodlusting slime of general Phil could not be quenched and she was pinned down – penetrated and murdered. She died on that night – the night when Shinra invaded. A shard of glass shaped like a cross was all her infant hand could hold on to and it found its mark inside of his neck – how easily the shape fit into her hand, how she had recreated it later into a four point shuriken, her first kill before she knew what death was. Her first fuck before she knew the intricacies of her own body.

The dead man lay atop the princess for eternity, stiff and lifeless inside of her – the pain terrifying and horribly pleasurable, she cried out, not knowing what was happening to her, why all of her muscles clenched so, in anger and fear and it was tense and relaxing like curative magic.

She passed out from the pain and woke up in a broken Wutai, the grass was gone, cities had been decimated by a big cannon far away – folk had been scarred and destroyed – invaded like Yuffie and her homeland. The jewels were gone. The towers were gone. The gods had left them, mocking them with their smiles from Da Chao. Fake smiles, the smiles that townsfolk carried when outsiders visited the capital city, snapping photographs of themselves in front of the Pagoda.

There were five floors in the Pagoda, each holding a monk. Each monk prayed to one of the Five Gods, and from there they recieved their power. Gorky, who was on the first floor, prayed to Kjata the god of the elements. On the tapestry behind the meditating monk, Kjata was woven beautifully in both forms. The human form was an overweight unclad man meditating – like a great woven shadow of Gorky who was still even upon her approach. Also upon the tapestry was Kjata's true form – a great bull wreathed in magic from the four elements – earth, fire, wind and water.

"Princess Yuffie!" Gorky exclaimed in Wutaian, (and finally! People began to speak her native language) "Are you attempting to climb the Pagoda this morning?"

"Yeah, that's it," Yuffie laughed, relieved that she could still control her tongue in Wutaian, as its dialect was not nearly as sloppy as that of the common tongue.

"Then I will challenge you on the first floor."

Gorky rose up and Yuffie readied her shuriken. But Gorky moved to the large gong on the far wall. Raising a mallet, Gorky slammed on the gong and small footsteps trumped down the stairs behind it. Shake, who resided on the second floor. Shake stood by the gong – this was custom for the next challenger to oversee the fight (and take the appropriate steps to ensure that no one was killed.)

"You know the rules," Gorky said, walking to the circle of chalk in the middle of the floor, "no healing unless it's done by the observer."

"How do I know you guys won't cheat?"

"You can say many things about the honour of the Wutaian," Gorky said with surprising confidence, "But he will never cheat."

"No, he'll just lie down like a spineless beachplug. Let's go, buddy."

Gorky's belt was lined with materia, and his arms flared up with water that rose like fire away from his hands. Fire crumbled downwards towards the ground like sand slipping between his fingers. Encircling his hands were grains of dust, whirled around quickly by a powerful wind force.

Yuffie thought quickly, remembering the spells that she had stored in her enemy skill materia. Time magic – that wouldn't work against spells once they were cast, she knew spells always hit their targets. Numerous elements which could be countered by Gorky's opposing elemental force. At the last moment, as Gorky was about to throw a cataclysm of spells at her, she remembered a useful spell she had picked up in Junon a year back after encountering Rufus' pet panther. She had never used it or thought about it due to its defensive nature (she liked battles short and painless) but here she had no other choice.

"Big guard!" she cried as earth, wind water and fire were hurled towards her. A green shell of light formed around her body as the spells hit – the blast knocked her back but didn't wind her.

The seconds she had wasted on defensive tactics allowed Gorky to get close enough to punch her in the side. Yuffie expected this, however, and let the impact of the punch toss her legs into the air. Using the inertia, she grabbed his shoulder and cart-wheeled on top of him, her hands firmly on his shoulders. She let herself drop and they knocked heads. It hurt her, but not as much as it startled him. She dropped to the floor and went for his legs, slicing her shuriken ten centimetres above the wooden floor – ankle level. Gorky leapt back, using the power of wind to blow about the room, raising him up. Yuffie's automatic floating materia combination worker in her detriment as she was tossed lightly around the room, spinning with the wind. Her shuriken, however, was not affected and she threw it at Gorky. It caught him in the shoulder and he cried out in pain, ceasing the spell and dropping both of them to the floor.

Yuffie's leg suddenly caught fire and she countered it with an ice spell which hurt nearly as bad. _'That removes the hassle of shaving, at least,'_ she thought as she leapt towards Gorky to retrieve her weapon. Grabbing one of the four blades, she ripped it from its place in his shoulder down to his opposite waist, tearing a gash in his clothing and his armour. Gorky leapt back and spread his arms out, signalling all action to stop. He bowed to her.

"I thought you were just a wild girl," he said as Shake handed him a potion. He drank it calmly. "You handled that pretty well. Good luck on the rest of your climb."

"Luck is for losers," Yuffie shrugged, grabbing the potion from Shake, "See ya."

Shake was already on the second floor, standing infront of the tapestry of Alexander – whose true form was a huge castle-like robot that looked more like a great mountain than a being. The human form was the same as the rest with details only a monk could distinguish. Yuffie had little time for scholarship in her own theology. She practiced what worked.

"All right, Shake," Yuffie asked, "Who am I really fighting?"

"You are challenging me."

"Are you kidding me? I gotta fight a punk? How did someone as young as you get up to the second floor?"

"What? Punk? I'm more of an adult than some bimbo girl."

"Wh, what did you say?!"

"You see?" Shake laughed, "That anger is what makes you so immature. Don't pat yourself on the back until you've beaten me."

"Just watch!" came her reply.

"The only thing you can do well is breathe. Sure you're brave enough to fight?"

"Stop yappin."

The gong was rang and Chekhov from upstairs stood beside it – at the ready with potions.

Shake was quick, but Yuffie had prepared herself beforehand with the proper materia. Her reflexes were magically enhanced, and she could barely avoid his attacks. He was too quick for her Shuriken, which, unlike her, could not be sped up by materia. She hurled spells at him. Unlike the previous battle (where the tables had been turned) Shake was not prepared for the excess of magical attacks and soon the monk of Alexander admitted defeat.

The monk of Hades was Chekhov and he awaited Yuffie at the next floor, ringing the alert of Staniv to come downstairs. The tapestry depicted a skeleton cloaked and hooded over a cauldron. This was Hades' true form, the god of plague. His human form was immensely fat – even Yuffie recognized it. Gone was the usual smile and instead a horrifying snarl.

"It's been a while since you've gotten to fight, Chekhov," Staniv laughed.

Chekhov smiled, "But this is as far as it goes."

"That ain't gonna happen! You need to learn a thing or two about the strength of youth!"

"Keep mouthing off like that, little girl, and you will get burned."

"I got insurance."

Chekhov laughed, "What do you expect of a child barely out of diapers. Let's begin!"

Dark smoke curled around Chekhov's feet as he held up a single green materia orb. It glowed brightly and Yuffie felt the ethereal tug of magic being cast by the soul – the spirit energy – of Chekhov. Yuffie concentrated on absorbing the spell. She did so by relaxing, embracing the ethereal tug. She wasn't quite sure what the spell was – she was never sure until it was cast. The enemy skill materia did most of the work on its own.

The spell ended and Yuffie wasn't sure what had happened.

"Looks like your spell didn't work," she shrugged.

"Hades is the god of plague, Princess Yuffie," Chekhov smiled, "I can wait until the poison immobilizes you before I attack."

"Why you bastard!" Yuffie was aghast, and was starting to feel a dizziness in her head. Before she lost concentration, she tried as hard as she could to return the spell. She reached mentally into her materia and felt the presence of a poisonous energy. She tried as hard as she could (her energy fading) to throw it back at him.

Chekhov sensed the magic spell and shook his head in surprise. With her final ounce of mental strength she poisoned him – and in her exhaustion she collapsed to her knees.

"What?" Chekhov asked, starting to walk towards Staniv.

"No healing!" Staniv ordered, "Not until the poison takes one of you."

Soon Chekhov collapsed. "Yuffie!" he cried, "How did you?"

The mental exhaustion turned into a crippling nausea and Yuffie spat out vomit and blood. Her eyesight was beginning to fade to black, but she looked at Chekhov, who crawled on the floor with her, nearly immobilized – they were waiting to see whose constitutions would relent first.

"You… underestimate… youth…" Yuffie tried to humour herself, feeling blood welling up in her mouth.

Chekhov didn't respond, he was unconscious on the floor, drooling slowly out of his mouth. Staniv ran to the circle and poured a phoenix down into his mouth. Yuffie smiled and let the poison take her.

She awoke to find Staniv and Chekhov standing over her. Chekhov was in great health. Yuffie was still queasy.

"The phoenix down restored your body to its original state," Staniv informed her, "but drink this remedy to rid your body of all the poisons."

"Thanks," Yuffie said and drank the potion, "No hard feelings, Chekhov? You're a sneaky bastard, you know that?"

"Being the monk of Hades was not my choice," Chekhov said, "But it is tradition, and I must honour that."

"Right, honour, tradition, custom. Bla, bla, bla."

Staniv moved upstairs and Yuffie was surprised there was no gong on this floor. On the tapestry behind Staniv there were two humanoid forms of Odin the god of war. The first was another smiling fat man who Yuffie ignored, looking at the second, more recognizable figure. Odin sat heavily armoured atop a six-legged white horse – both heavily armoured. Coming out of Odin's head were two great horns that looked like branches of a tree growing from either side of his head. In one hand he held a lance and in the other a steel bladed sword. The true picture of a warrior.

"The rule is the best warrior, who has been most blessed by their God, will be your opponent on each floor. The pagoda has five floors, but the fourth floor is the highest. For I have the blessing of Odin, legendary god of war, and no one has ever beaten me. Still wish to try?"

"Just come on!!"

Staniv reached behind his back and pulled a great sword out of seemingly nowhere.

"How did you do that?!" Yuffie cried.

"It's a spell," Staniv smiled, "called invisible pocket."

Yuffie pondered that spell's usefulness but soon the sword was swinging towards her head and she ducked to avoid collision. She reached around and sliced a neat cut in his lower back with one of her blades. Staniv let go of the sword and it clattered to the ground. Yuffie kicked it away from his reach.

"How's the weaponmaster with no weapon?" Yuffie asked. Staniv smiled and from behind him he drew a thinner, longer sword.

"How many of those do you have?" she asked in bewilderment.

The answer, as she would learn in the next half hour, was fifteen. One by one she seized his weapons. On occasion he would pull out two at a time and Yuffie would have more trouble – every time she threw her shuriken at him he would block it easily. She would parry often with his older, discarded swords, silver arrows and lances until she retrieved her weapon of choice for another round. After fifteen rounds, Staniv stopped.

"Those are all of my weapons," he announced, "I have no more means to fight with you. While you are injured and I am not, you have fought valiantly and have disarmed me. Congratulations."

Gorky, Shake and Chekhov had climbed upstairs to observe the fight, and they healed the two combatants. Only the monk of Leviathan was left, and they followed Yuffie up the stairs to face who they referred to as 'Him.' and Yuffie thought briefy of Cloud's ominous referral to Sephiroth.

But she recognized the man at the top of the Pagoda. He stood under the painting of Leviathan, the jolly fat man, whose eye she had been tied to yesterday, and the blue serpent wrapped around him, hissing up at the sky. Underneath stood Godo Kisaragi.

"Dad?!" she asked.

"I'm glad you made it this far, Yuffie."

"Why are you--?"

"I'll answer you by having your skills tried against me. Hold nothing back, come as if you're trying to kill me. If you don't, then I'll have to kill you!"

Their fight lasted the longest of any of Yuffie's previous fights.

When Yuffie attacked with magic, Godo went on the defensive with magic and attacked her physically. When Yuffie attacked him physically, he would block her with magic barriers. Her shuriken pierced through one, however, and cut Godo's left cheek. He healed himself quickly, laughing and tossing the shuriken back to Yuffie.

"No healing!" Chekhov cried, "It's custom!"

"Are you the king of Wutai?" Godo shouted back as he dodged a punch from Yuffie, throwing a fireball which she absorbed with ice. "I thought not!"

They continually regenerated as they cut into each other. It took an amazing amount of concentration to continue healing herself while still attempting to block Godo's sword with her Shuriken. She would only attack when she was fully healed, which wasn't often, as Godo's blade was quick. He cast explosions of flame at her as well, and she retaliated with s flurry of spells, all of which she had mastered.

When their spirits could no longer continue healing, they both fell to the wooden floor, exhausted and panting. Gorky, Shake, Chekhov and Staniv looked at the royal family, who lay on the ground and they began to laugh.

"You..." Yuffie said between pants, "...old coot...not bad."

"Ha, haha."

"Heh, heh."

When they regained their composure, Godo reached into a brightly ornamented box and pulled out a red orb.

"It's time I gave this to you, Yuffie," Godo said. Yuffie's eyes gleamed with the sight of materia, but it only reminded her of Cloud. Her father continued, "This is the Leviathan materia."

Leviathan, one of the five sacred gods. That would explain the colour. Still, she was moved to say, "What?"

"Materia is a gift from the gods to the Planet, and Leviathan has lent this pagoda his powers for thousands of years, only the conquerer of the pagoda may take it, only the extremely powerful may master what is within."

"But lord Godo!" cried Staniv, "In order to conquer the pagoda, one must kill you! That's our custom!"

"Custom, custom, custom!" Yuffie shouted, "I'm so sick of hearing that. It's so stupid!"

"Silence, miss Yuffie!" ordered Gorky.

"What about the rest of you?!" Yuffie shouted at them, "You have all of this power. Are you satisfied being cooped up in this tower?"

"Yuffie..." began Godo.

"You too, dad. Just because you lost the war! You turned Wutai into a place like this, a cheezy resort town peddling to tourists. How dare you? Da Chao and Leviathan are ashamed."

The room fell silent, as Godo's arm, still holding the materia, fell to his side. Shake finally spoke, "She is still a kid."

"What did you say?" Yuffie could feel her face getting red.

"Yuffie!" shouted Godo, silencing the room, "Forgive me."

She turned to him, her anger being washed over by confusion.

"It's all my fault."

"What are you saying, Lord Godo?" asked Chekhov.

"Losing the war, turning Wutai into this place," Godo sighed, "Yuffie... I'm the same now as I was when I began the war. But after our defeat, I began to think. Is strength only for defeating the enemy? Or is it something to show-off to others? Might begets might, it's the same way as the Shinra. I know you were looking for materia for the good of Wutai. But the reason I hide my strength now is also for the good of Wutai. And now, I realize, both are necessary. Strength without determination means nothing, and determination without strength is equally useless. You, and the man that was looking for you, I sense you both have detemination and strength. Go with them."

"Dad..."

"I'll protect the five sacred gods until you return, but take Leviathan's thoughts with you. He will protect you. Use him for the good of Wutai. Go, and come back alive."

Yuffie smiled smugly, "Of course." She accepted the materia.

The four lesser warriors left the top floor, returning to their rooms of study. Yuffie was about to leave, when Godo stopped her.

"The materia they all have," he said, "After their battle is over… do you think they'll still want it?"

A smile curled at the corner of Yuffie's mouth, "Of course not!"

"Then go, and survive until the end. Come back with the materia."

"Heh, heh. You bet!"


	85. Book 4: Parochial Town

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land **

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Parochial Town**

Yuffie sprinted the rest of the afternoon, clutching in one hand her four-point shuriken, in the other, the red Leviathan materia. She did not have the heart to de-equip the materia in her shuriken to make way for the new one; they already provided her with all the tools she needed to emerge victorious. And it was the materia inside her shuriken that got her across the island in half the time it had taken Cloud and the others.

"I can't believe I'm getting back on that stupid plane," she whined to herself, leaping onto the large wooden bridge. It began to sway, and she leapt to the other side before the motion had a chance to affect her weak stomach. Her magical orbs glowed brightly, allowing her to leap deftly through the air, landing on the other side. When she reached the cliff's edge, she jumped, her materia slowed her fall before impact, and she landed gracefully on the sand. She was alone on the beach, aside from two quarrelling beachplugs and tracks in the sand from where the Tiny Bronco had taken to sea a few hours ago. She looked in the distance, but they had already disappeared beyond the horizon. Yuffie whined a little to herself, and swore that she would find them someday. She turned and began to head back to Wutai.

* * *

The working propellers batted at the water, and Vincent had to give up his earlier position at the edge of the wing, to avoid his legs being lacerated. He instead stood on the wing, enjoying the feeling of his cape thrashing against the back of his legs. On occasion, Cloud stood beside him, and Vincent assumed it was because of the talk they had on the beach, Cloud felt closer to Vincent now. Vincent barely cared. 

Before the day was through, Aeris asked him if he had ever had a sense of humour. Vincent replied with a simple "perhaps." Aeris giggled and told him that life would be much easier if he could laugh once in a while. The words would have much more meaning to Vincent in the following weeks, but as the Tiny Bronco sailed across the sea, he shrugged it off.

"First," Barret laughed, "Cloud was the cold man. Then it was Nanaki, and now Vincent's taken over the job for both of 'em!"

"I can still be cold and distant," Nanaki said, but whimsically. In truth, the group seemed to have less respect for the beast because of his outstanding longevity. And, while more intelligent than any of them, Bugenhagen had likened Nanaki to a fifteen year old human, barely a man. Aeris would pat him on the nose on occasion, and while she meant it innocently, it bothered Nanaki.

Cid, for the first time since their departure, took his hands off the wheel and turned to converse with the group. The river that cut the west continent in two was pulling them in, and they needn't waste any more fuel. He laughed with Barret and was charmed by Aeris, as they all were. Cid and Nanaki got along quite swimmingly, and whenever Cait Sith made a useless comment, Cid's mocking rhetoric made the trip a joy.

They sailed through the river, the waters pulling them through. They passed a mountain range, with a series of waterfalls, ones that caught Vincent's eye.

"Could it be?" Tifa smiled, "Vincent's finally caught in rapture?"

"The world is a beautiful place," Cid said, quite out of character.

"There's something about this place," he said calmly, "Like something is calling me there."

"Probably your stomach," Cid laughed, "The only thing up there is fish."

"I can't wait until we get to a town and eat something that isn't fish!" Barret bellowed.  
The river chose to wash them ashore by a small town with wooden buildings. It was a collection of perhaps ten houses, and a large church.

"I've been here," Barret announced, somewhat fornornly, "This place is called Virennion, they one of the only places on the Planet with religion left."

"Besides Cosmo Canyon," Tifa corrected.

"I said 'one of,'" Barret defended.

"Well," Cid climbed out of the cockpit, "If they've got eatin, I'm eatin!"

Cid was the first to walk down the dirt road in the town, with Aeris in close pursuit. Tifa walked close to Cloud while Aeris was pre-occupied. The rest lumbered about. In truth, the group seemed a little empty without Yuffie, she had become a staple of the party, part of the group. Cloud almost missed her, had she not betrayed them all. He wondered if they would ever see her again.

A door to a house opened and a young child peeked out. She was wearing a humble black dress and a plain white bonnet.

"Mother!" she shouted, "Father! We have visitors!"

The door opened wider and a woman looked out into the street. "God have mercy! It's Barret Wallace!"

All eyes turned to Barret. He waved at the woman in the doorway and smiled. The woman nearly pushed the child over running out of the house, and she ran right up to Barret, completely dwarving herself beside his enormity.

"Barret, I thought you'd never come back!"

Barret scratched the back of his head with his large hand, "Heh, neither did I, Paesis."

"Come inside, we're just about to start dinner. I hope you haven't turned vegetarian in the last two years."

Barret laughed, "You thought I'd go an' do a stupid thing like that?"

Paesis, who wore the same as her daughter, looked at the party, "Come in, all of you. There is plenty of food."

* * *

Paesis' husband was a pastor at the church, and Aeris talked with him about the church in the slums. 

"Well," pastor Miaro said, "If it is God's will, then of course flowers will grow in Midgar. It's the only logical explanation."

Cloud laughed at the idea of God and logic.

"Well," Tifa interjected, "Then how do you explain the Lifestream?"

"Y'all are atheists, aren't you?" Paesis asked, "Not that it's surpising, even Barret here doesn't believe in the almighty."

"Sorry to disappoint," Barret said.

Technically," Nanaki said, "most of us trust the Lifestream. Atheism is the firm believe in disbelief. I don't think a single one of us here matches that description, even Cid has his pleasure faith."

"Hey," Cid laughed, "Lady luck is on my side!"

"Lady luck," gasped Paesis, "Surely you don't--"

"Naw..." Cid replied, "It just sounds cool when I say it. Most atheists will shout out a good ol' fashioned 'Holy Hell' once in a while, y'know. But me? I'm happily and healthily atheist. I don't know a thing about this Lifestream these numbskulls are always talkin' about."

"We didn't either," Miaro explained, "Until Barret, Biggs and Jessie came through here on their way to Midgar. They stayed here for months, really confirmed the faith in the people here. We owe AVALANCHE alot."

"About Biggs an' Jessie..." Barret started.

"We heard," Paesis said, "It was on the news. I'm surprised you survived the crash."

"Well," Barret said, "We escaped jes in the nick of time."

"Sounds like Lady Luck to me!" Cid slapped Barret on the back.

"Sounds like divine intervention," Miaro said, catching Cid's eye. Everyone knew both statements were meant light-heartedly but there was something scathing in Miaro's tone, a fear of frivolity. "It's a miracle you're all still alive, what with us hearing about AVALANCHE all the time. They really have it out for you – they call you 'Barret the Blackhearted.'"

"Yeah, well," Barret said, "Atheists, you know."

That got a resounding chortle from all over the table, even from Cid and little Eve, Paesis' daughter. Conversaton went on, Cloud noted that not five minutes went by without the subject changing briefly to religion, with some preaching by pastor Miaro. Cloud quickly learned that this town was an anomaly. They weren't up to date with the rest of the humans, as in atheist. They weren't Wutaian, clinging to the five ancient Gods. They weren't the Cetra. They believed in something that was meant as a means of seperation from the Cetra, and they had built their lives on that faith. It made Cloud somewhat jealous, to be so confident in a faith. Unfortunately, in his life, he had never had a clear direction, as far as he could tell. He just wished he remembered his life enough to be sure of that.

Barret lied to his friends and denied AVALANCHE's involvement in the bombings and killing of thousands of people. Cloud was surprised, both at Barret's tact, and his sudden embarrasment of his crimes. He shrugged it off as tact in the end, the more friends the better. For the most part, AVALANCHE was Shinra's scapegoat, certainly Cid and Nanaki were innocents. And Aeris, of course.

"Y'all can stay here the night," Paesis said, "We've got two rooms, the two ladies can sleep with Cait Sith and Nanaki, and the men can all share the other room."  
"I don't think putting Nanaki in the same room with Aeris would be such a good idea!" Cid laughed, referencing the tale of how Nanaki and Aeris had met. The beast shot him a glare. That joke apparently wasn't funny.

"Why not?" Paesis asked, making the joke even less funny.

Cid backed off with a graceful, "Ahhh... never mind."

* * *

Cloud found himself unable to sleep. There were four beds in the room, Vincent sat at the window and watched the moonlight. Barret and Cid snored loudly. Cloud was happy he was able to sleep in the nude again, he hadn't been able to do that since before he can remember, from Tifa's chair to Aeris' guest room to one room inns, he hadn't slept in a room devoid of women since, well, since the Nibelheim incident. He missed Aeris' smell in the room, the smell of flowers, of beauty. He missed her hand in his, and he couldn't sleep, he found, without it. 

Vincent's presence in the room made it difficult to lie awake in stillness, because somehow, Cloud knew that Vincent was aware of his conscious state. So the former mercenary got out of bed and put on his clothing. He wandered out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen, sitting where he had at dinner. How he recalled the smell of roast chocobo before he ate it, it had pleased him to no extent, after tasting nothing but strange Wutaian fish. Calm moments like this, sitting still as moonlight flooded into the kitchen, it almost made the hard times worth it. The Planet wasn't such a bad place, he reasoned.  
There was a creaking coming down the stairs. Someone from the ladies room, or one of the residents. It was Paesis, wearing a white nightgown, and she looked at him.  
"You're Cloud, right?" she asked.

He nodded.

Can't sleep?"

"Rarely can," he said, "I usually have nightmares, anyhow. Remembering things I want to forget, forgetting things I need to know."

"That's dreams for you," she smiled, not realizing that he had stopped talking about dreams, "Where are you headed tomorrow?"

"We're trying to get to a place called the 'Temple of the Ancients.' But the problem is, we don't know where it is, or even how to get there. Or... even if it exists."

"It exists," Paesus smiled, "God must have brought you here for that reason. Slaskan is the weaponsmith, and his shack is at the end of town. He knows a few things about that temple, he's told us about it a few times."

Cloud was taken aback. It was certainly a big coincidence that the river had brought them somewhere with knowledge of a lost and forgotten temple, but he calmed his spirit and assured himself that it was only because Virennion was far out of reach of the arms of Shinra.

"God's will," Cloud said quietly, reflecting on Sephiroth, "What exactly is that, anyway?"

Paesis crept closer to him, "Well, sometimes it can be when two souls are brought together by divine influence. To be together, if only for a night."

Cloud had been thinking about Sephiroth and himself, but the last sentence hadn't made sense to him. He looked at Paesis with a sense of confusion, when he saw that she was bringing her face closer to his, her lips puckered and her eyes closed. He darted up from the chair.

"Wh-what the hell?"

Paesis rushed up against him and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Lie with me," she whispered, "There's more than one reason God brought you here."

"Your husband!" Cloud objected.

"My husband is useless in that department," she said, "God made it be so, and so he made it that you are here with me, in this room, on this night."

Cloud tried to walk away, but stumbled over his own feet and fell back onto the wooden floor. He hit his head fairly hard, and needed a few seconds to recover before he could stand up. In those few seconds, Paesis was on top of him, straddling him. She ran her hands along his chest, feeling his muscles and moaning quietly to herself.  
"Take me, Cloud," she said, and in one deft pull she removed her nightgown from over her head and sat atop him, completely naked.

Her age was beginning to show, as her breasts were starting to sag, and there were cellulite marks along her belly. Her vulva was hairless, but red, as if she had shaved that evening, most likely in anticipation for this event. She leaned in for a kiss, but looked at Cloud's expression. She stopped and looked into his eyes. "You've never been kissed, have you?"

It was true. Before SOLDIER, Cloud hadn't the heart to kiss any girls in Nibelheim, and after SOLDIER, and the five year memory gap, it was his endeavor with AVALANCHE, and that certainly didn't allow time for romance.

"No," Cloud said quietly, "I am not the romance type."

Paesis laughed, "Yes you are, but you're not interested in me."

"You have a husband" Cloud repeated, "And a daughter."

"Not his," she admitted, "In fact, you know the father, but I'll never say who."  
Cloud thought a moment, but couldn't recall any dark tones in little Eve's skin.  
"If you've never been kissed," Paesis said, "You need some learning to do before you get hot and heavy with that tart of yours in the pink."

_'Tart?'_

"Let me teach you."

Cloud shook his head. He suddenly felt that Vincent's company might have been a better idea. "I don't mean any disrespect," he said, "But I have to go to bed."

Paesis sighed, still completely in the buff, and she climbed off of him, "I don't know what young man in his right mind would refuse sex. Maybe I'm just too old to attract good looking men."

"I'm sorry," Cloud said, and left the room. Paesis stood in the kitchen, naked when Cid walked in, naked as well. He had been using the washroom and had gotten lost on his way back to his room.

"Hello there," Cid smiled, the ashes from his cigarette falling to the floor.

* * *

Cloud and Cid slept in the next morning, so the rest of the party went to Slaskan's shack without them. 

Immediately, Slaskan cried out in startlement as they came through the door.

"Ah! Oh, another customer. You sure picked an out of the way place." He was balding, and wore black like most other folk in the town. His vest was sleeveless, the sign of the weaponsmith. "We don't get many folk around here in Virennion."

"Yeah, well, we lookin' for somethin."

"If it's the 'Keystone' you're looking for, you're too late. I don't have it."

"What's the keystone?" Tifa asked.

"You didn't come here for that?" Slasked asked, and laughed to himself, "The Keystone is the key that unlocks the gate to a very old temple somewhere. You're not going to believe your ears, but I heard it was the Temple of the Ancients!"

"Temple of the Ancients!" Barret shouted, "Yeah! We need to go there!"

Slaskan laughed, a little like Scarlet, which made Cait Sith very irate, "Don't take it seriously. It's just a legend," he chuckled.

"Where is the keystone?" Cait Sith asked.

"I sold it already," Slaskan said, beginning to task about with numerous chests and weapons around the shack. "Yeah, well, to tell the truth, I didn't really want to sell it but... that guy had a way about him that made you feel like it may not be a good idea _not_ to sell it to him."

The thought of Sephiroth came into everyone's minds, but it was the lifeless Cait Sith who asked the inveitable question, "Who did you sell it to?"

Slaskan delivered a response that surprised them all, "The manager of the Gold Saucer... I think his name was Dio. Said he was going to put it in his museum; then he took out of here."


	86. Book 4: Showroom

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 6  
**

**Showroom**

They had spent three days in Verrenion, while Nanaki and Vincent travelled to get the buggy they had left behind at Nibelheim. They had walked until Nanaki led them to Cosmo Canyon on the first night, and Bugnhagen had lectured again on Planet life. Vincent was particularily interested, and talked with Bugenhagen for many hours on the subject of death and rebirth. The next evening, they reached Nibelheim, and Vincent drove straight back past Gongaga and to the little hamlet.

In the three nights in Virennion, Barret had been reminiscing with the townfolk. Cloud smiled at the fact that Barret had somewhere that appreciated him, if it wasn't his hometown. He knew, though, that Barret didn't much care for these people, really he wanted the affection of the coal miners. Of Dyne.

Cid had befriended pastor Miaro, and in the evenings was fornicating with his wife. Tifa and Aeris were inseperable, and made many friends in the town. Cait Sith, surprisingly, volunteered to shut himself down for the next three days, which got a resounding 'yes' from everyone. Cloud wasn't so quick, though. The moronic cat and buffoon of a stuffed mog had endeared themselves to him, and without the poor fortunes and lame remarks, Cloud was left alone to think about Sephiroth. Cooped in a God-worshiping hamlet while Sephiroth was out there, trying to get to the Promised Land, and the temple of the Ancients. Night and day, the silver haired SOLDIER was on his mind. Sephiroth. Sephiroth. Sephiroth.

And then Aeris. At nights, he would enter the kitchen, unaware that Cid was missing from his bed. Aeris had become wise to this habit and would join him for late tea and crackers. They would sit across from the wooden table and their ankles would caress one anothers, and they would talk about nothing at all. Completely frivolous things to take their minds off of whatever was keeping them awake.

On one morning, Cloud arrived in the kitchen to find that Miaro was not at his usual place making breakfast for his guests. Instead, he heard a sound he had almost forgotten...  
It was almost like a train whistle, but wasn't a constant sound. It was a short, musical clash, and then a great wholesome echo that descended upon the town. It was coming from outside.

Standing alone in the middle of the dusty street, Cloud found the source of the sound. A belltower, like the one in Nibelheim. In high relief, great golden shells swung to a fro like fat pendulums, with every swing they would crack open a great noise all over the hamlet.

It sounded like the chimes of a piano, like the ding of a microwave. It was big and metaphysical, and he was drawn to it. He was filled with a haunting nostalgia, the bells here were unfamiliar, they were fuller. The belltower in Nibelheim was nothing but a foreboding clang.

At the belltower's base, there was a humble stone building with three arches in the facade. Each arch had a painted tympanum above the great wooden doors. Cloud surveyed the paintings and was soon aware that this was no schoolhouse.

The one on the far left was the beginning of the universe, as the book of god had it told. A great hand blew a kiss into the universe, and from the fingertips came flowing, etherial green tendrils that pierced a floating stone. The Planet.

The tympanum on the far right was the end, the omega. A great black beast was shown blowing fire and rocks upon humanity, the green tendrils had turned to red and the hand that created the universe lay dead between two floating stones. The first was the Planet, now with red lifestream and the beast ready to carry the sinners into the hell of deep space. The second rock was a Planet of fire, to crush or assimilate the known world, Cloud wasn't sure. He had never learned much, but the paintings were flat and easy to read. Emphasis on the spiritual.

The central tympanum was the painting that Cloud was intruiged with the most. God's hand was shown cupping a floating rune, green and luminescent, the paint seemed to jump out of the arch. The symbol, a series of swooping curves, formed the shape of a double bladed dagger, or its hollow likeness. It was the same symbol that Bugenhagen had engraved into his machine.

Walking under the symbol for Lifestream, Cloud opened the wooden door and stepped into the nave.

The pews were filled with townsfolk, and they all turned their heads to him. Miaro, robed in black and standing at the apse, smiled briefly at Cloud's arrival and continued his preaching, referencing the book of god from his lectern as Cloud stood awkwardly at the back of the nave.

"...So what does the sacrifice of the Nibelheim boy teach us in the book of sins, and more importantly, what does his resurrection teach us?..."

Slaskan sat in the closest pew, so Cloud slipped out of the centre aisle and sat unceremoniously beside the weaponsmith.

"First time to church?" Slaskan whispered.

"Yeah," Cloud smiled, and began to recall meeting Aeris in the slum church, the church with no belltower. There had been no service.

The listened to Miaro's sermon as he stood atop the dais, god promised salvation from sins if one would only repent from them, and mroe importantly, forgive themselves. With that comes eternal life, immortality. Cloud chuckled at the thought, but thought of Vincent, and wished he was here. Vincent, who hadn't changed in thirty years, locked in a wooden sarcophagus. Resurrection. Sephiroth. Just what did Jenova cells do to people?

The sermon bored Cloud, and he began to look around the pews. He could not see Paesis anywhere. In fact, he couldn't see any women in the church at all.

* * *

The market in Virennion was small, and the few shops it had were run by homely, god-fearing folk. Aeris, head high, held out her left hand for shaking. Tifa waited while Aeris introduced herself to the vendors (all of them women) and busied herself by staring intently at the baskets of food they were buying. Aeris always returned with a look of deep thoughtfulness.

"What?" Tifa asked.

"Rings," Aeris hummed. "They've all got wedding rings."

"That's why you've been shaking with your left hand? Clever. But I don't see a marriage-centre anywhere. You think they travel out of town to get married?"

"I think," Aeris tongued her cheek, "They're using the church. Honest-to-goodness church weddings. They used to do that hundreds of years ago, before marriage-centres. It used to be a god-thing… We need bread."

They ambled down the mall. The sun flaked away bits of Aeris' pale skin, and Tifa saw the skin regenerate. Her healing materia was hidden with her staff, but Tifa figured it was glowing. It was probably glowing all of the time, that's why Aeris was so… what was the word? Flawless-looking.

Aeris stopped at a flower cart and stroked some electric blue flowers that Tifa couldn't name. Aeris continued their talk, as if they had never paused at all. "After the Cetra were, um, wiped out, people believed in a bunch of different gods. Gods that made lightning and gods that made grass grow. It was their way of explaining the what and the how of the Planet. Later, people started believing in only one god who did all the things the little gods did. I guess it was easier. This town is like a time capsule from back then. Everywhere else, we've got technology – and some of us have Planet study – to tell us the how. But still, nobody ever thinks to ask 'why.'"

"How do you know all of this? Is it part of your Ancient knowledge?"

Aeris blasted out a laugh. She stopped and shook her head quickly. "Mom was a schoolteacher. I never read the good book, but she paraphrased it for me. I don't know much about the old gods either, but I learned a lot in Wutai, and in Cosmo Canyon."

"It's all bunk though, right?"

Aeris led them towards the baker's cart. "Sure. At least, it was. You've seen Cloud summon Shiva as well as I have. Materia is made from memories. Memories of fire, memories of lightning. Memories are green. Dreams are purple – the dream of being inhumanly fast, the dream of flight. That red materia invokes the spirits of gods we forgot about. The Lifestream isn't so forgetful. By believing in those gods, those people brought them along into the Lifestream and now they can be summoned."

"What about this town's god?"

Aeris shrugged. "That'd be a pretty powerful spell. The everything spell."

* * *

After the sermon had ended, the crowd shifted and moved out of the tiny church, leaving Cloud and Slaskan alone in the pews.

"Slaskan, you've met people from around the world. You've gone out and seen it, haven't you?"

"Aye," Slaskan smiled, "Indeed I have."

"When AVALANCHE came here," Cloud asked, "those many years ago… when they told you the truth about the Lifestream. How could you continue to believe in God after that?"

That seemed to silence him, and Cloud felt a little shame, sitting there in the pews.

"Morality."

"Huh?"

"The reason I continue to believe in God, is because without him, there is no morality. There is no way to judge what is right or what is wrong when everything begins and ends in the Lifestream. There is no one to point the way."

"What about parents?"

"Not everyone is that fortunate."

Cloud's mind flashed to an image of Sephiroth. **My mother's name is Jenova. My father's… ha ha ha… what does it matter?**

"On the one hand," Slaskan continued, "you have the Shinra Electric Power Compay. Shinra takes advantage of its political power and places itself above morality; nothing is wrong for Shinra because it has the power to do whatever it pleases. On the other hand, your friend Vincent feels so guilty about past events that he has made a list of his 'sins' – which include choices made by other people – for which he felt he must 'atone' by spending years in miserable seclusion. In both of these cases, people are fabricating an artificial idea of what morality should be because no absolute moral standard exists. This is ultimately a pointless exercise if people's eventual destiny is to be reduced to 'Spirit energy'."

"So you would prefer ignorance?"

"I would prefer someone to show me the way. This fear of judgement by God is what keeps people in Virennion doing good. I've seen the world outside of here – it is chaos, it is anarchy. It's might-makes-right out there and here it's just _right_."

"But you can't argue with the studies of Planet life. Would you prefer a God to rule over the Lifestream?"

"Have you taken a look at the paintings above the doors out there?"

"Yes."

"In the middle, what did you see?"

"I saw a hand, cradling a green rune of seven swooping lines. I've seen that symbol before, on a machine that showed me the Lifestream for the first time."

"It's a symbol for balance and spirit energy. The Ancients created that symbol. Some believe that it is a keyhole on the door to the Planet. They said that the Ancients could unlock the Planet and find its Promised Land."

Cloud thought of what Aeris had said on their journey – she had said so much. "The Ancients also said that they could speak with the Planet, and that the Planet had a will of its own. It was difficult to understand from our perspective, but it was almost like the Planet was its own living thing, and we were all cells in it."

"That would mean that we are simply meaningless parts of a whole being. God respects our individuality."

"But in both cases, you're trusting something that you can't understand. Can't really see."

"That's true."

"Well, then we'll just have to put our faith in people. You put faith in what Miaro tells you because he is closer to God than you are."

"And you put your faith in the Ancient because she is closer to the Planet than you are."

"…Yes. I do. She is our morality."

* * *

"You're lost in thought again," Tifa smiled. "What are you thinking about?"

"Marrying Cloud."

Tifa's smile was slapped from her face. It reappeared immediately, but it was plastic.

Aeris did not ignore it. "What? One of us is gonna have to do it sometime."

Tifa let one hand go of the basket and motioned at Aeris. "Go for it. I'm not planning on marrying anyone."

Aeris smiled, reveling in the tension. "Sure thing. I'd like to do a church wedding. The real deal. Maybe in my old church, in Sector 5. Not in a marriage-centre! I want something big and ceremonial, like the ones they had in the good book days. I'll wear a big, ruffley white dress with pink ribbons trailing down it, and you can do my hair. He'll wear a suit – it would look so funny with his farm boy face.

"And it won't be just the two of us, we'll all be there. That's gotta be what all those seats are for. You and Barret and little Marlene, all dressed to the nines. Cid won't be able to smoke or swear inside the church, so he'll stand by the door in case he needs to go out for a curse-fit. Nanaki will be there, and Cait Sith, and Mom and even Yuffie. Everyone we've ever met will be there. The traveler from Kalm. The Allworths from Fort Condor. The Webbs from Junon. That chocobo lady from the Gold Saucer. The elders of Cosmo Canyon will float near the rafters. Cid's wife will be there – she'll be his wife by that point. And all the people from here, Miaro can be our official marriage-clerk, and he can talk about his god and it will all be very wholesome. We'll all get together and have a great big party."

"That sounds lovely." It was not a lie.

Suddenly, as if the detailed scenario had been wiped from Aeris' memory, she looked around with her brow furrowed. "Where are all the men?"

Tifa followed her gaze. The market was full, but of women. Women selling, women buying. Tifa glanced at their hands and saw that they all had wedding bands. "They're all married," Tifa said, "Their husbands should be around somewhere."

"I think," Aeris said, "It's a god-thing. The women buy stuff and keep the house, the men go out and hunt. That seems backwards to me."

"You think it should be the other way around?"

"No, I think it shouldn't be any way around. Everyone should just do what they want."

Tifa smiled, a pitying smile. "What a world that would be."

Aeris hummed. "So what's your marriage with Cloud gonna be like?"

"What?"

"Come on, I told you mine. Now it's your turn."

"Aeris... I don't want to play any more games."

She didn't listen. "I'd still like it to be in my church. I can walk up and down the aisles throwing daisy-chain necklaces." She giggled, and Tifa giggled a bit too, despite herself. The tension broke, and they held hands walking down the market.

* * *

Vincent had picked out a new gun from Slaskan upon his return, for his had been snatched by a horde of sahaugin on their way back through the Valley of the Fallen Star.

The buggy was ready on the day of rest, Cloud saw it driving thought town when he exited the church. Aeris and Tifa had packed Nanaki's carrying load again, and they threw it into the buggy, giving the beast a rest.

The party hopped into the buggy and made their way across the river and through the deserts of Corel. Barret kept silent, his old friends and family were buried in the ruins here, every last person in mid-Corel. He paid his respects.

"So," Tifa smiled, "What did you boys talk about?"

"Not much," came Vincent's cold reply.

"This is why they're supposed to travel in threes," Tifa nudged Aeris, "Yuffie should have gone with them, she would have talked the whole way for them."

"Yuffie..." Aeris smiled. The young ninja was gone now, excommunicated from their cause. What was it that Cloud said when they first accepted her companionship? One less enemy made their journey easier.

"The girl was a burden," Nanaki said, his voice croaked as if it hadn't been used for days, "but still... she was valuable."

"Well," Cloud said, "If we meet again, we'll see where everyone's at." He had made the decision, and he felt that it benefited the party. She had crippled them and left them for dead, and who was to say that she wouldn't do it again?

They reached Corel prison.

Mr. Coates had been killed by a renegade who wished to use the elevator.

Unfortunately, that prevented anyone in Corel prison access to the elevator, and they had killed themselves off in rage. The prison was deserted, there were only bodies scattered about.

The oasis of Virennion was behind them, and Cloud had to remind himself that the Planet was not in the best shape. They headed to North Corel.

* * *

The gondola's propellers began to spin, and Cloud counted heads. There were seven, eight including himself. He recalled the last time they were on the gondola, there had been six. Cid lit up a cigarette and told everyone that Lady Luck had been on his side last night--and this morning. He kept it as vague as that, although Cloud had an inkling of what the old pilot was talking about. Vincent looked out the window at North Corel below them, and Cait Sith was back to normal, hopping along, and breaking into the occasional song. It was obvious he was happy about returning to the Gold Saucer. The few days of rest must have done him tremendous good.

Barret was still silent, and he still had the remains of an egg on his left shoulder from his appearance in North Corel. Things had been thrown at them, Cid and Vincent as well, and they recieved heckling from the townsfolk all the way to the gondola. Barret sighed in disappointment.

Aeris put on her best Barret impression and lumbered up to him "'Nobody but the damn Shinra!'"

Barret had to laugh, "You look like a half-dead baboon!"

Aeris laughed herself, "It's true though, don't you forget it."

"I won't, little girl," he smiled.

They were above the Clouds now, the air was thin. The gold saucer sprouted from the Clouds below like a beanstalk emerging from the mist, glowing and sparkling. Mog hopped up and down as Cait Sith shouted "Joy! Joy!" through his megaphone.

The very sight of the Gold Saucer made Cloud aggrivated. Every time he looked at it, he was reminded of how much humans ignored the Planet, shielding their eyes with the Clouds below them, and living in blissful tackiness.

"Now this is my kinda place!" Cid laughed.

* * *

It wasn't long before Cloud found himself sliding through a multi-coloured tube, looping and twirling until he wasn't sure if he was going up or down any more. The stuffed mog was behind him, above him, all Cloud had to do was turn his head and he would see the enormous white backside of the creature, hovering just at the tip of his spiky yellow hair.

And then the tube was falling behind him, the brilliant physicists who had designed the system shot Cloud into the air flank first, the gravity propelling him headside and over until he landed gracefully on his feet. Mog tumbled atop him moments later, and they fell into a heap.

And so they stood at the base of a long staircase. Behind them, the edge of the golden pod, overlooking the Clouds below and numerous distractions in the sky, blimps and spotlights and the occasional firework. All up the staircase, to the left and right there were rainbow manholes set for trapping wayward kiddies and sending them flying to a different golden park in the complex, leaving their parents in hysterics on the staircase of Chocobo Square.

"Who are we looking for here?" asked Cid, landing more gracefully than Cloud had imagined. The man was keen to jumping, he had gathered that much. His cigarette hadn't flinched from his mouth.

"We're looking for Ester," Cloud replied, and began up the staircase towards the domed arena, lined with lightboards that contained scrolling marquee text: 'PICK A WINNER! CHOCOBO RACES!'

They waited at the counter, and Cid sweet talked a woman with a blue wig, who eventually sold him a ticket for a chocobo race. He bet on Chocobo Joe and his black bird Teioh, winning of course. Cloud smiled watching the screen until Ester emerged from the jockey's lounge, a room Cloud was familiar with.

"Cloud," she smiled, which still looked odd to Cloud, a woman smiling with absolutely no nose to speak of, "Are you interested in racing?"

"Not today. Actually," he said, "I'm interested in relics."

"Relics? How do you mean?"

"Does Dio have a private collection of... things?" he asked.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean," she said, "But I know he has a showcase, where he puts most of his worldly findings on display."

"That's a start," Cloud smiled, "Where is that?"

Ester forced down a laugh, "It's in Battle Square. You know how to get there, I presume."

Cloud shook his head and guffawed, "All too well..."

* * *

The group of them paraded down the stairs, looking almost like a clan of mascots, part of the parks entertainment, complete with a techno-giant, a stuffed mog, a red beast, beautiful women and, trailing behind them, the dark man in the long red cape. They looked at all the tubes, searching for 'Battle Square.'

It was located between 'Wonder Square' and 'Station Square.' And Cloud did not hesitate to jump down.

Twirling and spinning, it shot him out already on the ground, and he emerged from the tube running on the stone steps.

He was relieved that the park had not been massacred this time, it had been cleaned and repaired and was open for business, and above him on the thin staircase, a mother held the hands of her two sons, each who pulled away at her arms trying to break themselves free, to run ahead and cause mischief before she could scold them. He followed behind as Cait Sith bounced out of the entrance and tumbled over, becoming a cushion for Cid, whose cigarette had affected him greatly in the high altitude. He stood from Mog's comfortable posterior and stumbled up the staircase, stoned as hell, shouting happy profanities.

The showroom was to the right of the great iron doors that led to the arena, where Cloud, Aeris and Cait Sith had been trapped earlier by Dio. He remembered Cait Sith's surprise when the managed to escape from Corel prison, and his persistence to remain with the party. He hopped ahead of Cloud into the showroom.

They were greeted with a large podium right up front, that had a great golden cup on it. Carved into the vessel was some sort of car, with an unusual four wheel design. The car seemed to be made of small beams, and could only fit one person. On the cup, two of these vehicles skidded along some sort of track, and a great checkered flag waved down the winning vehicle, the driver, whose only discernable feature was his great big hat, threw his arms up in triumph. The label on the podium read "Star Cup: Presented to Dio after winning the fourth annual kart race at the three worlds convention."

The next, another cup, silver with no engravings. The plaque read: "Zauger's Cup: Presented to Dio by Queen Daisy at the third annual three worlds convention kart race. Second Place"

Perusing the rest of the podiums, Cloud found no items of great interest, "Laugh Sapling," "Chisa's Mask," "Slayer's Pot". Along the far wall there was a great portrait of Dio, an enormous clock and the first robot model, which Cloud recognized as a Shinra creation. The Calling Gourd, he remembered.

Below Dio's portrait was an empty podium adorned with a purple satin pillow. Cloud walked up to the podium and read the plaque.

"Temple of the Ancients: The legendary stone which opens the altar to the mythic temple."

"It's not here," Cid announced with confusion.

"Thanks, captain obvious," Cait Sith laughed, and laughed alone.

"What do we do, Cloud?" Aeris asked.

"We wait here," came the reply, "We wait for Dio to bring it here, and then we'll borrow it. We'll buy it if we have to."


	87. Book 4: Battle Square

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Battle Square**

It wasn't long before Dio, proprietor of the Gold Saucer entertainment complex, flew through the chute in nothing but three thongs and began strutting up the stone stairs to his showroom. It was a good day, he remembered, squeezing the keystone in his hand. He had never seen such a stone before, not an inch of it wasn't covered in runes and ancient writing. Some of the symbols he recognized from his other collections. Some of them were as foreign to him as the Planet's surface. The stone was covered in glass, the smoothest spherical surface. It was a pleasure to hold.

The dome opened up above him, the sun was gone, but artificial light filled the sky. Another fireworks display tonight, his guests would be pleased. All he needed to do was put this little orb on the pillow and then peruse the park until the thunderous sounds of pyrotechnics lulled him to slumber.

They had covered up the Battle Square massacre in short order. Hell, Dio wasn't shelling out millions and millions of gil a year to have the park closed for a month every time someone died. They were businessmen.

He hopped up the stairs, his flip-flops flapped against the marble steps and he landed in the showroom. To his surprise, there was someone standing in front of his self portrait, blocking his view of himself.

Cloud Strife, he remembered. Sent down to the prison for the massacre. He recognized the spiky yellow hair immediately, it filled his vision – it matched his theme park.

"Oh, it's you, my boy," he smiled. His mind raced: Were people allowed in the showroom after 3:00pm? Yes, that must be the case.

Cloud was surrounded by an entourage. Among them, the new robot that Dio had been sent not a month ago. He thought it had been destroyed, he certainly hadn't seen it around.

"Long time no see, Dio," the robot chimed in.

"Hello, kitty." Oh yes, now he remembered, that horrid cat. Dio wasn't a witless simpleton; he couldn't say he was happy to see Cait Sith again.

Cloud eyed the keystone, "Is that..."

"Yes it is," Dio laughed, "The keystone to the Temple of the Ancients. Took a long time to find, my boy, but is she ever a beaut."

"I have a favour to ask," the ex-con began. If there was one thing Dio hated, it was that sentence. "Can we borrow it?"

"Borrow it?! I just got it!" Dio held on to the stone so tightly he was afraid the glass would break. He looked at the crew, the man with the gun-arm, who had rid him of that pesky Dyne. The attractive women, the peaceful beast whose presence made his park alive and as eccentric as ever. And Cloud, the man who had forgiven him for his wrongful accusation (although in part, it had not been wrong, and in part, it had not been an accusation against Cloud), who had beaten Choco Joe at a race, who had, whether he knew it or not, relieved Dio of the watchful eye of Shinra itself.

"You've been good to me in the past," Dio concluded, "So I'll let you have it -- on one condition."

Cloud was listening, it was obvious. He really wanted this stone. But for what?

"One condition?" the ex-con echoed, and Dio couldn't help but laugh.

"Entertain me!" he smiled. "This is Battle Square, is it not?"

Ripples appeared at Cloud's cheekbones. He was clenching his jaw. Good – that meant he was alive. Spirited.

The girl, the clean faced one in the pink, stepped beside Cloud and subtly slipped her hand onto his wrist.

"So you want me to fight?" he asked, "I'd like to say this is the first time someone has traded a key item for a good fight."

"So you'll do it," Dio smiled. He was looking forward to a good fight. "The rules are simple; it's a one on one match, last man standing after eight opponents wins. If there are no more opponents, we have local beasts to fight."

Cloud exhaled slowly, and nodded. "How long do I fight?"

Dio smiled, "Until you lose."

* * *

Dio sat amongst Cloud's friends to watch his death - or his triumph. Between the ladies, of course, it was the best view.

Cloud stood alone in the circle, a purple stick with a great yellow lollipop. He held his great white sword with informal fluency. The door opened and the first opponent came out, a warrior from Wutai, sent to protect his nation's integrity. Dio had to laugh, he knew what the Gold Saucer was and he knew what it wasn't. Trying to prove your nation's integrity in a theme park coliseum didn't give merit to the cause.

"Kyaaar!" came the meek battle-cry of the doomed Wutaian as he ran at Cloud, yoshiyuki ready to strike. Cloud brought the thick sword up to block and cut the man in two.

The moat was as purple as grapes, and the blood that seeped in gave it a wine-like texture.

"The keystone," asked the woman with the large chest, "Exactly what does it do?"

"It opens up the Temple of the Ancients," Dio said, "Nobody knows where it is, though, or if it even exists, so it's just a relic."

"It exists," the pink one said with certainty, "Shinra is after it, and so is Sephiroth."

"Are you still after that guy?" Dio asked as the gates lifted up and another young man ran in, yelling and flailing his weapons. "I thought that with you running around the world that you would have found him up by now."

"It's kind of complicated," chesty said, "We got a little lost, and a little sidetracked."

"He's going to be so surprised when you finally meet him." Dio mused.

"...you have no idea."

A woman ran out, swirling nunchaku around her body, but Cloud was quick and he gave her a quick blow to the side of the head. She fell into the water unconscious, as was fished out by park attendants. Grunts, Dio fancied, he paid them less than minimum wage, but he clothed them, that was more than he could say for himself.

Shinra was after the Temple of the Ancients, eh?

Seven opponents were torn apart by the ex-con, but unfortunately, there were no more opponents, so Cloud was made to fight King Ochu, a beast that had been in Dio's care for two years now. It had grown to the size of a house, and shot poisonous spores from out of his mouth, were it fast enough it would have eaten Cloud whole. He was quick as ever, though, and navigated what little space he had left on the platform.

Mog came bounding into the room, Cait Sith riding atop. The looked over the balcony down at Ochu, who batted his tentacles at the ex-con.

Dio stopped watching the fight. Where the hell had that stupid robot been? Dio was glad to be rid of it. He was reluctant to accept it in the first place, and was more than glad to schuck it off to Cloud. Although the more he thought about it, the more he was fond of the old boy. He felt sort of guilty letting them keep Shinra's garbage, sent to harp on Dio and make sure his operation was Shinra-friendly. And now Cloud had the little beast in tow, probably mucking up their journey to find their friend Sephiroth.

The crowd cheered as Dio's beloved King Ochu fell limp. Cloud might have stood atop it in victory, but Dio didn't care to look. Not at poor Ochu, not at Cloud who had won the keystone. Dio's eyes were focused in on the robot. How decorticated it must have been out in the real world, how ridiculous it must have looked, hopping about on a stuffed mog. Speaking in the annoying remote voice changer controlled by Rufus or one of his cronies. How useless it must have been against monsters they had to have run into out there. How annoying it must have seemed, never letting his secret slip, masked behind a robotic smile, the sneaky cat.

Cait Sith: Shinra's little spy.


	88. Book 4: Interrupted by Fireworks

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Interrupted by Fireworks**

Station Square was full of people, but all the wrong kind. Cloud noted no children, no vendors selling fake 'gold pieces' for ten gil a pop, no giant chicken mascots bounding to and fro. The ropeway station was filled with mechanics.

An official looking sir marched up to Cloud and waved his hands. "Sorry, sir," he announced, "the tram is out of order right now."

The gravity of this hadn't yet hit Cloud, "So what?"

"I'm really sorry, sir," he announced, "but you won't be able to leave until it's repaired."

"Is there a staircase to the bottom?"

The staff laughed, "We're currently at eighty-four thousand metres, sir. There is no staircase."

"Fuck that!" Barret interjected, "I wouldn't go on stairs even if they existed! They only lead back to the Corel Prison, anyhow – without the buggy we're toast."

"This happens sometimes," Cait Sith said, sitting atop Mog. "They know me over at the Hotel, I can get us a few free rooms."

Mog bounded towards the tubes.

"We'll notify the hotel once the repairs are completed," the staff assured.

* * *

Ghost Square did not have multicoloured tube entranceways. Instead, the holes were directly on the ground in a fake cemetery, labeled by tombstones. Cloud was thrown up out of the "Station Square" grave feet first, and flipped around to land on his feet. Cait Sith was already inside the Ghost Hotel, up a forebodingly winding stair. There was no music blaring in the cemetery, or from the old, wooden building. It was silent, save for the periodical hissing of the fog machines.

When Nanaki landed beside him, his four paws made crunching noises on the dry dirt that covered the ground. Cloud looked at his friend, and they made their way up the stairs together as the rest came shooting through the grave.

It was some trick of light that made Cloud swear he saw live bats encircling the roof of the Ghost Hotel. At one point, he stopped walking and the bats stopped flapping, suspended frozen in midair. He bobbed his head back and forth, and the holographic bats flew forward and backward to match the placement of his eyes.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Cid asked.

"Oh, nothing." Cloud shrugged and moved into the hotel entrance.

The hall had a red carpet, and Mog stood in the middle, his stuffed arms hanging down and touching the floor with his huge stuffed fists. Cait Sith adjusted his crown and spoke through the megaphone.

"It's about time," the cat giggled, "we don't usually get the chance to relax together like this."

"So let's regroup," Vincent said, coming in through the door with Tifa and Aeris.

"Yeah," Cait Sith agreed, "how about it Cloud? Can we talk about what's happened so far? I haven't been here since the beginning, so my grip on what's going on is limited."

"Hell," Barret coughed, "I've been here since the beginning, and I still don't know what the hell's goin' on… Hey Cloud, what the _hell_'s goin' on?"

"Hm," Cloud hummed through his nose, thinking, "We're going after Sephiroth. Sephiroth is in search of the Promised Land."

"The Promised Land?" Cid asked.

"A land full of mako energy, ... or at least that's what the Shinra believe. I don't know if it actually exists."

"The Cetra return to the Promised Land. A land that promises boundless happiness," Aeris explained further.

"Cetra?" Cid asked, "Is that some kinda disease?"

"That's what the Ancients call themselves," Cloud said.

"...You don't 'know' where the Promised Land of the Ancients is," Aeris hummed, "You search and travel, until you feel it. You get to a place and you suddenly know, 'This is the Promised Land.'"

"Aeris," Cloud posed, "can you feel it?"

"I think so," Aeris sighed, and then laughed, "but it's not here!"

"So Sephiroth is traveling the world because he's searching for the Promised Land," Tifa repeated, "is that right?"

"That," Aeris remembered, "and one other thing he's looking for."

"The black materia," Cloud finished.

Cait Sith's megaphone blared, "I heard from Dio that a man in a black cloak was lookin' for the black materia. Had a number on his wrist too."

"That's nothing new," Tifa mused, "how many black cloaks and tattooed numbers are there?"

Nanaki stepped forward, "You know, of course, that my number is XIII."

They stopped for a moment. No one had ever questioned that tattoo, it seemed so at home with Nanaki's other tribal markings.

"Nanaki," Cloud said, remembering his old name, Red XIII, "how did you get that tattoo?"

Nanaki looked around the room at his seven companions. Every one of them now knew, all that was left was to say his name. "Hojo. The number was done by Hojo."

They were quiet for a while, contemplating the beast. Nanaki, son of Seto, last of a dying race. Experimented on by Hojo and given a numbered tattoo, just like Sephiroth's followers.

"So there are at least thirteen," Tifa quietly stated after the long pause.

"This means Hojo did something to those men in black cloaks," Aeris deducted, "but looking at them and Nanaki, I don't see what it has to do with Sephiroth."

'_I don't have a number,'_ Cloud thought, although he wasn't sure of its relevance.

"That's why I think we should ignore the numbered tattoos and just go after Sephiroth himself," she concluded.

"Yeah," Barret agreed, "me too. It's all jes' too damn confusin'."

"And…" Aeris started, but something stopped her from continuing. Her mouth quivered into a frown and she put her hands to her face, as if to hide tears, "I'm sorry," she apologized, "forget it! I think I'm tired, I'm going to go to bed now."

She ran to the stairs behind Cait Sith and grabbed a key from the pile he had set on the first step. She looked at the number and bolted up the stairs.

"What was that, all of a sudden?" Cait Sith asked once she was gone.

"I wonder what came over her," Vincent pondered.

"Is that all?" Cait Sith asked, "how about the black materia?"

Cloud shrugged, "You wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"Now all we gotta do is take action!" the giant said, "We're startin' tomorrow!" he lumbered up the stairs, grabbing his key with his big hand and caressing his gun-arm as he entered his correct room.

"Cloud…" Nanaki sounded nervous, "I'm number thirteen. Am I going to go mad too?"

Tifa knelt beside the beast. She spoke, but almost indirectly, "I don't know what Hojo did to you, but you've been fine so far, right?"

"But…" the beast began.

"Be strong," she assured.

He looked at the floor, blinking his remaining eye and breathing slowly to himself, "But I…"

"Stop it, Nanaki!" Tifa hushed curtly, angrily. She ordered, "Be strong!" Her voice was harsh, but it shook with the beginning of a sob, which she managed to subdue before humiliation.

Cloud – who was not often to be wise to the subtleties of women – noticed this for once and found himself confused. "Tifa?" he began.

"You're not the only one who's worried!" Tifa shouted at Cloud, and Nanaki.

"I don't know what going on," Cait Sith lied, "but we're in a bad situation." About that, he was right.

"It's a darkness that's growing," Cloud concluded, "As every day went by on the Tiny Bronco, I felt a more menacing shadow settling on an already ruined world. Something big is coming and we need to find Sephiroth fast. Our time is running out, I can feel it. Barret's right, all we have to do is take action, starting tomorrow. Somebody wake Cid up and give him his key, we'll need rest tonight."

Cait Sith nodded, and smiled.

* * *

Cloud couldn't sleep, he was expecting this. Being alone in a room made it even worse, it was colder without all eight of them there, without the insomniac Vincent perched on the windowsill, without Aeris' hand in his. He was naked in bed, a liberty he hadn't had since before he could remember. Tifa's chair, Aeris' house, and hotel 'party suites' for impoverished travelers, nine beds in one room. The ghost hotel, despite its terribly corny themed adornments, was the swankiest room in his memory. But the bed was too soft, moving.

'_Haunting,'_ he mused, and stood up out of it.

The night was cold at such a high altitude, the cold reminded him that they were far above the clouds, and the rainstorm battering his window was manufactured by storm generators, artificial white noise to lull him to sleep. It wasn't working.

There was a potion in the cabinet beside the window, and he drank it, remembering his battle earlier that day. He was surprised he escaped un-injured; perhaps his fighting was improving, even for a first class SOLDIER. He assumed five years in comatose, or wherever he was, had made him a little rusty.

A coma, he reasoned, was how his memory could be so hard to grasp.

The potion tasted horrible, as potions are wont to do. He plugged his nose leaning his head back, and he watched the small flames in the chandelier above his bead, with his neck craned upside down.

He felt a little better, although far less sleepy than before. He reflected more on the battle. After King Ochu had died, Dio handed over the keystone, and there it sat on Cloud's bedside table, a funny sphere covered in runes.

He wondered about the runes. He recalled the symbol in Bugenhagen's machine, and in the tympanum of the church in Virennion. Seven curved, swooping lines connecting to form a thin, abstract circle with diamonds stretching on either side, through the circle the seventh line cutting it in half, emphasizing its symmetry.

The symbol for the Lifestream.

He found the symbol sitting on the top of the keystone, crowning it. As he looked closer at it, he swore he heard the sound of boots walking. The sound of someone approaching his door, someone wearing combat boots.

There was a faint knocking on his door, three taps. Cloud quickly threw on his dungarees and sleeveless turtleneck. He walked up to the door, his barefeet on soft carpet.

He opened the door.

She didn't stand in the doorway, she marched right into his room, clumping her combat boots right inside. She put her hands on her hips.

"Huh," Aeris said, "You're room is bigger than mine."

"Is something wrong?" Cloud asked.

She turned to him and smiled, "Hee, hee! You want to go on a date?"

"What?"

"A da-te. Or haven't you ever gone on one?"

"Don't take me for a fool," he fibbed.

"Tsk, tsk!" she wagged her finger, "a little touchy, aren't we? Well, you promised when we met, so let's go!" Walking up to him, she put her arms out straight and pushed as hard as she could into his chest. Taking him by surprise, he stumbled out of the door, and she followed, grabbing his boots and closing the door behind her.

As they walked down the staircase, harassed by more holographic bats, Cloud asked, "How did you know my room number?"

"Cait Sith told me," Aeris replied simply.

They came upon a hole in the ground, leading into darkness. It was the theme of Ghost Square, darkness and rain, but it was a tube nonetheless. Aeris jumped inside, not looking at the tombstone to see where she was going. Cloud looked before jumping in. Station Square.

'_How romantic,'_ he laughed.

There was a man standing by the tram in Station Square. "The tram will be fixed by the morning," he proclaimed, "for your convenience, all attractions are free tonight. There is also going to be a free show in Event Square."

Aeris smiled broadly, "Ooh! Come on, let's go!"

Cloud couldn't help but smile back, as she grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the multicoloured tube for Event Square.

Sliding down, Cloud felt the tip of Aeris' long ponytail whapping against his dungarees, and he looked down to see it whipping back and forth between his thighs, the faint glimmer of her ornamental materia shining brightly down the way.

They emerged on their feet running and took a moment to slow down and stop. Aeris put her hand on his shoulder and panted a little.

"Whew," she sighed.

"Funny," he mused, reminiscing about their meeting in the church, "I thought you were cut out to be in SOLIDER."

"Well, now you know my secret," she said.

"Congratulations!" came a voice from behind them. Cloud turned to look. It was another staff member, smiling broadly at them. Behind him was a large audience and beyond, a great wooden stage, the stage set up like an old castle. The staff member spoke, "You are our one hundredth couple today! You two will be the leads in tonight's show!"

"Wha?" was all Cloud could utter.

"Oh, now, it's not hard. Just play it however you want to and the rest of the cast will cover up for you"

Cloud felt as bewildered as he did upon seeing the Gold Saucer for the first time. This was something so foreign, so unbelievably cheery and silly that he felt as if madness was going to take him. The staff member walked down the main aisle towards the stage. "This way, please."

Aeris leaned into Cloud, her hand still wrapped gingerly on his wrist, "This sounds like fun, Cloud, let's do it!"

She ran after him, but Cloud couldn't find the will to move. He stood for a few moments as the rest of the audience, the ninety-nine couples and countless single folk and children applauded him on his timing. He took a step forward, and summoned the courage to walk up the aisle.

An oboe, a clarinet and a flute began the pretty song to open the show – they told of endless fields and serenity. Aeris and Cloud were ushered backstage as the narrator began. "Long, long ago. An evil shadow appeared over the peaceful kingdom of Galdia... Princess Rosa was just kidnapped by the Evil Dragon King, Valvados. What will become of her?"

Aeris was escorted by theatre crew further backstage, and Cloud was pushed to the edge of the curtain, and a crewman held his arm still. Cloud was still in shock, he wasn't sure if he had fallen asleep and was having a dream even more psychotic than the world that he lived in. Galdia wasn't a real place. He looked out onto the stage and saw the narrator, a sillouette bathed in light.

"Just then," the narrator said, walking offstage, "the legendary hero, Alfred, appears!"

"That's your cue!" said the crewman, and let go of his arm.

"Cue for what?" Cloud asked.

"Just run out there," the crewman said.

"And do what?" Cloud asked, not accustomed to orders, let alone orders that vague.

"The legendary hero, Alfred appears!" the narrator repeated.

"Just get out there!"

Cloud ran onstage, and his presence alone made the audience laugh. He couldn't see them, he was blinded by lights coming from above, shining into his face and making him sweat. He put his hand up to guard his eyes from the light.

Oh how he hated bright lights, these were assiduous and hot. He squinted, terrified, and the audience laughed harder.

He attempted to gain some composure. He wasn't sure if laughing was a good sign or a bad one. He turned to look away from the lights, at the backdrop of the stage, an old stone castle painted on a huge screen. He saw his shadow on the canvas, faded from lights from above, but he looked at it and the audience laughed more.

He saw another shadow appear on the screen, moving towards him fast. His reflexes reached up to draw his sword, but he realized he had none. He began to panic.

He looked towards the figure. It was a man, dressed in an old knight's outfit, or a cheap plastic replica of an old knight's outfit. Standing on one foot, the knight pirouetted towards Cloud, moving quite fast for someone who was constantly spinning. When the knight had reached Cloud, he stopped and bent down on one knee.

"Oh!" cried the knight, "you must be the legendary hero, Alfred!"

'_Who?'_ Cloud thought. He shook his head.

"Yes you are!" the knight whispered. Confused, Cloud pointed to himself, looking around the stage. The audience was in an uproar, cackling away. The lights were hot on his face. "Yes you," the knight assured him, and nodded heartily. Cloud, confused, nodded with him. The knight rose to his feet, "I knew in my soul it was you! Please! Please save Princess Rosa!"

Alfred continued to nod as the knight announced, "Now, please talk to the king!"

The knight began backing up and stood against the stone wall of the castle, and from between the curtains pirouetted the king, dressed in his usual blue robe and golden crown. He stopped a few metres before reaching Alfred, and the legendary hero had to run up to speak with him.

"Oh, Alfr-red," the king said, rolling his 'r's as his majesty has always done, "You have come to save my beloved R-r-r-rosa. On the peak of a danger-rous mountain dwells the evil dr-ragon king, Valvados, who's kidnapped the pr-r-rrincess! But you can't beat the dr-ragon king now, talk to the one who can help you!"

Alfred looked back at the knight, but saw now that a wizard was rising up out of a trap door, fog billowing from beneath him. Alfred, sensing a wizard would be more helpful in the slaying of a dragon, approached him.

"I am the wizard, Vorman," Vorman boomed, "What would you like to know?"

"I need to know the Evil Dragon King's weakness," Alfred said.

"Speak up, boy," Vorman whispered.

"What?"

"OH!" Vorman yelled, "You need to know the Evil Dragon King's weakness? It must be, yes, it is true love! Only the power of love can withstand the dragons fangs."

The knight rushed forward and pointed to the entrance of the castle, "Alfred! Look!"

And with a boom from the orchestra, the dragon appeared, a massive green dragon like the ones from stories. The evil dragon king flew in through the curtains clutching poor Rosa in his giant stuffed hands. She struggled and cried, but he held her fast.

"Aeris!" Alfred cried, but he couldn't think, the lights were blinding him. What a cruel fate to be blinded in his moment of need. He blocked out the lights and heard the faint sound of laughter from beyond them.

"I am the evil dragon king Valvados!" Valvados bellowed at Alfred, "I have not harmed the princess. I've been expecting you!"

"But we're not even on the mountain yet!" Alfred observed, and laughter echoed throughout the castle's great halls.

"Please help me, legendary hero!" Rosa cried, and she turned to the dragon and asked him how she was doing. He said she was doing fine. Alfred didn't want Rosa to listen to the treacherous words of an evil dragon king. He must be defeated, but how?

And then, as if the gods were shining on him, Vorman the wizard spread his arms, "Alfred, here is what will happen. To your beloved – a kiss! The power of true love!"

A kiss?

Kiss who? The evil dragon king?

Alfred ran up to the dragon king, who had landed on the ground. He wasn't so big, only slightly bigger than a human. It might have been a man in a suit had Alfred not known better. He was going to kiss that dragon and send him straight to dragon hell.

And then Aeris smiled at him. Cloud paused, looking at the flower girl, who was so happy and excited to see him so enthralled in their performance. Her eyes were almost filled with tears. She was enjoying herself.

Cloud knelt down and looked in Aeris' eyes. Was this the moment, on stage, in front of hundreds of people? She reached out an arm and grabbed his wrist tenderly, and pulled him towards her. He let her.

It happened so slowly, he could feel the hair from her long bangs drifting along his cheek, and when it felt natural, he closed his eyes and tilted his head a little, as to not hit her long, refined nose. Instead, the nose drifted alongside his, and that caress was enough to satisfy him for this lifetime, and a thousand more.

There was a small, final pause before their lips met, when Aeris exhaled in anticipation, a short, warm breeze brushed past his lips, and she moved her head forward to meet his. And Cloud realized, just before they kissed, that it was the best he'd ever felt. Even bathed in bright lights. Her lips, soft as her fingers, met his evenly, and she inhaled suddenly. Cloud opened his eyes to see that she had raised her eyebrows. He closed them again and felt a warm tingling in his stomach. The moment lasted forever.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" cried Valvados, and Alfred ceased his liplocking with Rosa, looking up at the dragon in determination. "Curses" the dragon king spat, "The power of… LOVE!" Valvados turned tail and ran offstage.

"Oh, Cloud…" Rosa said, "I mean, Alfred."

"Oh look!" the kind announced theatrically, "The power of love… has tr-r-riumphed! Now let us r-r-r-return and celebr-r-rate!"

"Yes, let's!" cheered the knight.

"Yes let's!" cheered Vorman the Wizard.

The narrator walked onstage one final time, "Oh, how profound the power of love..." he concluded, "And so the legendary hero Alfred and our story live on happily ever after."

Everyone, including Alfred and Rosa, pirouetted offstage to the roaring applause from a very entertained audience.

* * *

"That was fun," Aeris said as they arrived back in Station Square. The attendant for the tram was gone, they were alone. "Hey," she continued, "Let's go on the gondola ride."

"The gondola's broken," Cloud informed, "That's why we're here, remember?"

"Not that gondola!" Aeris smiled, "There's a cool ride down in Round Square, I saw it last time we were here, but I never went on it. It's like the tram gondola, but more fun! Let's go!"

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him down the Round Square tube.

He wondered about the name Round Square as he fell through the tube, twisting and winding, producing the same feeling in his stomach as when he kissed Aeris.

Would this be a regular occurrence, now? Was Aeris only going along with it for the show? She seemed like she was genuinely enjoying it, but would it happen again? Cloud had never kissed anyone before; he wasn't sure how to handle a situation like this. He laughed at himself. He could be perfectly sound in any normal combat situation, but when it came to spotlights and kissing girls, he was as clueless as a beachplug in Midgar.

They arrived at a ticket booth. "Two please," Aeris asked, and the woman gave her two complimentary tickets. Aeris waved her hand in a 'come hither' motion and climbed into a small wooden shack that had a great wheel on the top. The wheel sat atop a track, and the little two person house dangled below. He was cautious as he stepped through the small door, to find only two small benches. Aeris sat on one, so he sat across from her, the room was so small their feet touched without trying, boot met boot.

The door behind him was closed and locked from the outside, to prevent accidents. Through the large, square window, the woman said, "Enjoy the sights of the Gold Saucer."

Their house shook and began to move.

"So this is a sightseeing tour?" Cloud asked. Aeris shrugged, and looked around at the inside of their new house. Each wall had a great square window, and the entire inside consisted of the two benches in close proximity, and a pointed roof above them. There was no light inside their house; they were lit by their surroundings.

Swinging out of Round Square, they saw the exterior of the Gold Saucer, shining as great coloured lights reflected off of them, moving and swaying like the sea. The clouds were beneath them, it looked like a storm. A great blanket of mist was far beneath them, flashing every so often with lightning bolts.

Ah yes, lightning, which had frightened the Cetra so much that it carried through their memories and crystallized in materia. That they worshipped a god of lightning. Aeris wondered if Ramuh was really down there, causing all that thunder and lightning to happen. She thought about Cloud's amulet, the one that could summon Shiva, the planetary goddess of winter. Whether or not she existed before the Cetra were wiped out is irrelevant, what matters is that she existed in their memory, and so now she exists as manifest of Cloud's magical prowess.

But just where did he get that prowess?

Cloud had also mentioned Ramuh as part of his magical repertoire, but he hadn't been used yet for reasons that Cloud was not interested in divulging to anyone.

"Wow, how nice," she said, looking through the window between them. Cloud looked out the window as well.

They were passing over Chocobo Square, or rather, through Chocobo square. The track looped up and right past their window, and a score of birds ran by, each manned by a jockey. Cloud noticed Teioh, the black chocobo in front, his rider Joe leading another race.

A chocobo warked in frustration as another bird passed him, and attempted to regain his title for seventh place. But the gondola ride kept moving, and the chocobos were left far below them now.

"Oh! Look, Cloud!"

They were now crossing through Ghost Square, and Cloud saw the generators for the fake lightning storm, up so high that the real lightning storm couldn't' reach them. He tried to look in the window for a sign of Tifa, or Barret, but he found none. The gondola swung past, and Cloud once again saw the holographic bats flapping around the cheesy Ghost Hotel.

Far below was event square, where Cloud could pinpoint the stage where not too long ago, he had kissed Aeris. Floating towards them from event square were many balloons, for during their next performance, they were to let go one balloon for every audience member. Balloons of all colours floated past the gondola, drifting serenly past the window, and Cloud leaned back into his chair. He looked over at Aeris, smiling and looking out the window. Behind her, a great red balloon floated past the window. She looked momentarily over at him, her eyes glinted with tranquility and contentment. She looked back out the window.

"Look!" she said, "A big golden statue of Dio!"

Cloud couldn't help but obey, and found it as hilarious as she did. They laughed as they looked at the statue, three stories high and still wearing nothing but a thong. Cloud quite enjoyed the addition of golden wings on the owner of the amusement park. A great crackly was heard above them. "It's so pretty," Aeris said, and Cloud looked up to where her gaze traveled.

Shards of a firework rained down past the window, still trailing blue and red light. Suddenly, more exploded around them, the force of the blast rocking the house to and fro.

"Oh my!" Aeris said, "These are close!"

Fireworks exploded all around the gondola, but never once did anything hit their house. They looked below at where most of the fireworks were exploding – they could barely see the gold saucer below them there was so much moving colour.

"It's so pretty," she said softly, barely audible over the crackling of pyrotechnics. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Cloud wasn't looking at the fireworks anymore, but he nodded his head anyway. The house was illuminated with green, then red, and the occasional bit of darkness when a firework was not exploding nearby.

She turned to look at him, and watched the fireworks explode in the reflection in his eyes; the mako shattered them into a brilliant kaleidoscope. She felt guilty then, and bowed her head.

"At first, it bothered me how you two looked exactly alike. Two completely different people, who look exactly the same. The way you walk, gesture. I think I must have seen him again, in you…" she shook her head slightly, "…but you're different... Things are different."

They sat in silence for a while, watching each other, watching the fireworks.

"Cloud?" she asked after eternity, "I'm searching for you. I want to meet you."

"But I'm right here."

'_I know,'_ she thought as the biggest, most stunning flower of fire yet blasted above them, raining yellow cinders around all four windows. _'I know you are. But what I mean is…'_

"I want to meet… you."


	89. Book 4: Mythril for the Princess

**Author's Note: **_Just want to give mad props to _AmascusMage_ for letting me steal the warship name from their totally awesome FF7-based fanfic "_The Phoenix Eye_." You should take a look at it. Like this novelization, it doesn't have nearly enough reviews in comparison with the next kadajxyazoo lemon crack mpreg junk on here. Using the name "_The Phoenix Eye_" is a shoutout from me to good fanfic in general, which so often in the FF7 category is diluted with senseless advent children crap. I said I borrowed from the compilation only when it suited my storytelling needs - I consider the compilation as official fanfiction, so borrowing from another author on eff eff dot net is just as sinister. Check out my favorite stories on my author profile to see some other really awesome FF7 fics. In the meanwhile, bonne lecture!_

_-Mr. Ite_

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Mythril for the Princess**

The East Gate woods lined the southern horizon, outstretched towards her like an old friend. How she had changed since her days of hiding in the forest, preying on travellers. It was unlike Yuffie Kisaragi to think of any former incarnations of herself as childish, but as she approached the halfway mark to turning seventeen it suddenly dawned on her that she still had much to learn.

Her legs were still shaking from being at sea for so long. The crew onboard _The Phoenix Eye_ had been kind to her (she would daresay that they treated her like a princess). On deck, she clutched to a carved redwood dragon's head and vomited from the side of the ship. She ate plentifully to ensure that she didn't throw up any vital organs – the crew ensured it (acting on Godo's orders, she was sure). The ship had been assigned to bring the girl south of Junon and it had passed through the Crystal River within a day.

Yuffie had been retching out the wrong side of the ship and hadn't noticed _The Tiny Bronco_ parked beside Virennion. She had thought about running into the waterlogged plane, when the stars came out and the ship rocked peacefully. A minimal crew handled the steering – making sure that the _Eye_ didn't stray into shallow river waters. Nobody spoke at night – it reminded her of being on the _Bronco_. The sickness would rouse her from her dreams of a prosperous nation and she would muffle her expulsions as to not wake the others. Back then – on occasion – she would raise her volume to a near scream-puke to test their slumber. They were deep sleepers to her knowledge (except Vincent and Cid) – easily stolen from. So meticulous was her plan that she forgot the fatal flaw – an unforeseen conscience.

And now – this mission from the king of Wutai – her dreams hung in the balance. When the Temple of the Ancients was raided and when Sephiroth slain, she would steal from them once more. She would have the command of the Wutaian army at her beck – to ward off AVALANCHE and Shinra alike. Would they surrender their materia and be treated like royalty in the new kingdom? Or would they fight and be denied such a luxury as friendship?

'_No,'_ she had thought as _The Phoenix Eye_ swayed nauseatingly to and fro, _'If I ran into the_ Bronco_, I wouldn't stop to say "Hi!" I wouldn't join them on their quest. To win them back, I need to give them the Temple.'_

The location of the Temple had hit her like a shot of glyphanide. After spending so much time in the Woodlands, it was painfully obvious where it was. But there was a river. A river that plagued her swimmingly sickened thoughts. It was too shallow for _the Phoenix Eye_, and too deep to swim through. Too wide to jump over. It was as if the Planet had constructed a moat so precise that nothing meant for the sea could cross it. _The Tiny Bronco_ could manage, she was sure, and Shinra would have no problem flying over it. How Yuffie was to get there, though, took up most of her thoughts when her head wasn't queasy or she was trying to convince herself that her affection for Cloud was merely a warrior's respect.

The crew of the _Eye_ had dropped her in a small bay south of Junon Harbour – it had been a near-perfect rounded rectangle – deep enough for the ship to pull in and just wide enough for the plank to touch mouldy earth. Yuffie assumed that it was once a dock – used before Shinra's time, when kingdoms and countries worked in harmony. In humanity's childhood, born from the ashes of the Cetra. Conquering water and land instead of cultivating – but still so innocent as to not wage death on each other. Merely the Planet. _'What a rotten and bloodstained history humanity has,'_ thought she and with a quick leap she soared off the plank and onto dry land (so dry that grass could no longer drink even in the rain). She waved cheerfully at the crew and they raised the plank and began to sail away. They begrudgingly nodded.

Yuffie had never had a good reputation in her country. She was pronounced dead at four. The stains of her childblood had been found in the ruined city of Kor, where Godo had sent her mother and her when Wutai was preparing for siege. The Shinra army had tricked them – invaded from the south instead. The marble and stone statues of Kor fell and the Shinra army only ceased when General Gainsborough collapsed with a dagger of glass in his neck. The army fell back because of the actions of an infant. But it was too late for the city – like so many cities in the south. She wandered into the jungles and kept running until she learned how to stop for food and how to build a shelter. Until her legs outgrew her tattered skirt and she dressed in animal skins.

When she arrived in Wutai at the age of ten they were surprised to find her alive. Not a surprise that precedes joy, but anger. Where had she been? Why hadn't she joined the fight? Why would she choose now to appear when the war was finally over? Godo, who did not share her lifetime of revenge-seeking, refused to acknowledge her existence. She returned every few years and hid crates of materia behind the statues in the scantly visited gods-shrine. She would have bided her time until the old man croaked.

But no more.

Now all that was left was to win the heart of Cloud Strife – at least enough to get him to surrender the materia. Stopping Sephiroth from finding the black materia was on her priority list, but she was sure that Cloud could manage without her. The first step was getting to the Temple of the Ancients before Shinra Inc.

And as the East Gate Woods welcomed her like a true home, she could smell victory in the air. It was close now. But she couldn't enter the woods yet.

She wandered purposefully along the mountainside, her eyes keen for a speck of shadow, a crack in the stone. The entrance to the northern mythril mines, where the Orunai slept.

As the sun began to rise in the east, she saw the almost too-perfectly rounded cave-mouth with boulders standing sentinel on either side of the door. She moved inside quickly and found Bear sleeping underneath his quilt – woven with the thick white-haired hide of zemzeletts.

She greedily wandered to the chest at the foot of Bear's cot. It gleamed in the torchlight (it seemed a miracle that the two torches were still lit). She had peered inside over a month ago, and what she had seen made her mouth water and it had nagged somewhere at the back of her mind along with everything else nagging at the back of her mind (Sephiroth, Cloud, Shinra, materia, food, and a long overdue change of underwear just-to-name-a-few). She did not care if the sound of the chest awoke the old man now, he couldn't catch her and if he did, then he would be next on Yuffie's prestigious list of foes vanquished.

As she clicked open the chest, Bear sat up (as if on cue) and repeated the same number that had just buzzed through her head. "Four thousand, three hundred and sixty-six."

The lid of the chest fell backwards and thudded the stone floor. The thud echoed around the alcove for a split second then flew out the cave-mouth and into the world beyond.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"Four thousand, three hundred and sixty-six," Bear smiled, "That's how many beings you've snuffed out of life."

"That's right," Yuffie narrowed her eyes. "How did you know?" Bear lazily held up a yellow materia stone. It glowed slightly. Yuffie smirked, "Normally, old man, showing a materia hunter something like that is a bad idea. But it's the mythril rope here that has my attention."

Indeed, the thin rope was still in there, shimmering – dreamlike – inside its silver trappings.

"I use this 'Sense' materia," Bear said, looking at the orb contemplatively, "To see how many lives you've taken. You – or anyone else who cares to walk into my cave. It's no surprise to me that you've killed that many, materia hunter. What startles me is that you remember them all."

"Yeah well, I keep all their heads on sticks in my lair."

"These aren't just human deaths," Bear said, "This picks up every life you've snuffed out in the history of your life. Every mosquito squashed, every parasite cleansed. Are you telling me that you keep track of all of those?"

Yuffie stopped. She knew the answer, as the crystal codfish she had eaten aboard _The Phoenix Eye_ had been kill number four-three-six-six. General Gainsborough had been the auspicious number one.

"How many humans have you killed?" Bear asked.

"I lost count."

"Liar."

"One hundred and eleven," she remembered (with a little guilt covered with pride) one of Don Corneo's lackeys falling to his knees with a shuriken between his eyes as she whispered, "One-one-one."

"It seems a sad and strange existence," Bear said, "That we kill every day in our lives, to eat, to survive, to gain – even to feel better. So many innocents."

"Are you trying to convert me to veganism?"

"No. Vegans eat parsley, that's murder too. I'm just curious as to why you count every animal eaten, every plant plucked."

"I'm going for the record," she replied coolly.

"You'd have to live a long time to even try for that one," Bear smiled.

Realization dawned on Yuffie. "Is that why you sleep, Orunai? To prevent killing?"

"I sleep because I do not wish to die, and I do not wish to kill. I awake to observe briefly and then I return to sleep."

"What about your blankets?"

"I'm not saying I my hands are blood-free," Bear laughed, "I'm well over one hundred years old! Fifty-four-thousand, seven-hundred-and-fifty murders from me, but I only know because of the materia. You couldn't expect me to remember a number like that after sleeping for fifty years. For some reason, I doubt you'll ever lose track. You seem to me the kind of young girl who will remember every kill until the day she dies."

"I don't like to talk about things like that. I've got… some extra room in my brain, that's all. Just filling in the blanks."

"When we first met," Bear said – Yuffie was surprised he remembered her, "You called me an Orunai, said that my abnormally long life was because of a blessing from the gods. I'm not a Wutaian, didn't fight against them either but I'm not a professor of their religion. Nope, I'm just a miner. I did hear a theory though, that people like me are closer to the Ancients than others. The Ancients lived for centuries, and they served the land, and the legend goes they only began dying when they first began killing and that's how humanity came to be."

'_Then Jenova's definitely not a Cetra,'_ Yuffie thought grimly.

"I figure, with fifty-thousand kills under my belt that my time should have come long ago. Being blessed with this long-life doesn't give me free reign to shorten everyone else's. So I'll sleep until my time comes, watching this world decay."

"Well, boo hoo." Yuffie stood up, "Is that all you're going to do? Sit in your cave and rot? Better to kill yourself than lie there like a sack of crap."

"Is that so?" Bear smiled at her – it was the same condescending smile she would get from men in Wutai, or the elders in Cosmo Canyon when she told them that all their knowledge went to naught when it came time to take action. When people got older, she reasoned, they started to suck.

"What good is there to knowing?" she asked, "Of age and wisdom. Curses to it, I say! You say that you're not making a negative impact; you're just lying around and breathing in our air, wasting away our oxygen with your never-ending torches. I kill to survive but at least I'm out there doing something so that one day there will be no more need to kill!"

And out they came. Those words that she had dreaded to say for her entire life. All the things that nagged at the back of her mind suddenly met at a foolish and idealistic nexus. Stop Sephiroth. Help Cloud. Restore Wutai. So there will be no more need to kill. The second-best option to reversing time and dying by the hand of General Gainsborough rather than kill and live in a world where killing is necessary. To die so that there will be no more need to kill. And the numbers will stop going up – those numbers that couldn't be dwindled down, that slowly piled atop each other with each passing day – so much so that she would only eat when hunger could not be avoided, when it wasn't a nagging but a crippling ailment. Then she would kill, and eat. To continue and fix this world. So that there will be no more need to kill. And when there is no more need to kill, she would sleep like Bear, and never wake up.

There was a long silence as their shadows flickered between the two torches.

"What will you use the mythril rope for?" Bear asked.

"I am going to build a raft… to cross an uncrossable river."

"What for?"

"To find an unfindable temple."

"What for?"

"To stop an unstoppable monster."

"What for?"

"To get the means to make my kingdom great."

"What for?"

"… So that there will be no more need to kill."

He smiled, showing his few remaining teeth after fifty years of malnutrition.

"Take the mythril rope."

"What about you?"

"You say I don't do anything. I think I just did. That alone is worth living for."


	90. Book 4: The Cat and the Keystone

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**The Cat and the Keystone**

The puppeteer in the Shinra building fiddled at the controls as Cait Sith's oversized hands grappled at the keystone, clutching with all of his tiny robotic might as he fell through the chute – blurs of colours blew past him, alighting Mog as an enormous rainbow fur-ball ahead of him.

The electronic synapses in Cait Sith's visual sensors took time to adjust to the light as he was thrown out of the chute and on top of Mog – who was in a heap on the floor of Station Square. The keystone fell out of Cait Sith's hands and bounced along the floor. As soon as the robotics could respond, Cait Sith was leaping off Mog and towards the rolling orb. He leapt on top of it, making sure it was safe inside his gloves. He was inspecting the glass surface for scratches when Cloud Strife flew out of a chute in front of him.

"Aww Hades!" cried the puppeteer, and it echoed out of Cait Sith's mouth in a high-pitched, robotic tone. The cat was running back towards Mog as Aeris flew out of the chute behind Cloud.

"Hey! Cait Sith!" she shouted.

"Go, Mog, Go!" Cait Sith ordered and the stuffed animal was already bounding towards Chocobo Square when the cat leapt atop him, trying to keep balance while holding the keystone as well.

"The keystone!" Aeris cried as Cait Sith disappeared inside the next chute. Cloud was already leaping towards the opening, looking briefly back at her before disappearing inside the chute. She ran after him.

* * *

Chocobo Square was open like a bowl – it was the only way the track could wind around the whole park. There was a terrible wind that blew Cait Sith's whiskers in front of his eyes, obstructing the view of the staircase they were attempting to descend – away from the portals and the chocobo building. 

"Careful, Mog!" Cait Sith commanded, and Mog bounded down carefully – two steps at a time. The wind grew more intense as they neared the edge of Chocobo Square – only a railing preventing them from falling off and down into oblivion – the puppeteer knew Cait Sith would shatter.

"What are you doing?!" Aeris cried over the wind as the Shinra helicopter (which had been informed of the time and location) drew nearer to the railing.

"Cait Sith!" Cloud ordered, "Stop!"

Tseng stood inside of the helicopter, leaning precariously out and holding on with one arm. The other arm was outstretched towards Cait Sith. The helicopter blades made it impossible to hear anything, but Tseng shouted in vain "Give me the keystone!"

Cait Sith held up the keystone, hesitating. Cloud and Aeris stood behind him. The flower girl looked at the scene in horror, and Tseng exchanged a look with her before grabbing the keystone from Cait Sith's outstretched hands.

In an instant, the helicopter pulled away as red firework embers rained down where it had been. Cloud and Aeris arrived moments too late and were left standing at the bottom of the staircase with Cait Sith. The wind blew about them as Cait Sith looked down onto the storm below. Cloud unclipped his sword.

"W, wait a second!" Cait Sith stammered, and Mog instinctively backed up a few feet.

"You were the one," Aeris shook her head, "I can't believe it…"

"Yes," the cat admitted, "I was the spy. I was hired by Shinra. I couldn't help it, you don't turn down Shinra. If it wasn't me, it would have been someone else. I was originally hired to watch over the Gold Saucer but serendipity seems to have brought us together. I don't think we should throw that away so easily."

"Are you suggesting you stay with us?" Cloud asked, "I can't believe I'm listening to this garbage."

"Then what are you going to do? Kill me? You'd be wasting your time if you tried – this body is just a toy. My real body's at Shinra headquarters in Midgar; I'm controlling this toy cat from there."

"Who are you?" Aeris asked, "I mean really. Who have we been with this whole time?"

"Whoa! I can't tell you my name."

"We're not getting anywhere," Cloud was staring at the cat with murderous eyes, sword still at the ready.

"Well, I told you that much," Cait Sith agreed shyly, "Talking isn't going to get us anywhere, so can't we just continue our journey?"

"You think I'm jokin'?"

"…All right," the puppeteer sighed, and Cait Sith made a dramatic gesture and a robotic noise to mimic it, "Yes. I'm a Shinra employee. But we're not entirely enemies. Something bothers me, it's been nagging at me for the last month – since I fell in with you. I think it's your way of life. You don't get paid. You don't get praised and yet… you still risk your lives and continue on your journey seeing that makes me… well it makes me think about my life. I don't think I'd feel too good if things ended the way they are now."

"Too bad," Cloud shook his head, "Our journey is over without the keystone anyways. Thanks a lot."

"We can still get to the Temple of the Ancients!" Cait Sith pleaded, "In fact, it will be easier now that Shinra is looking for it, too! With the airships working now, they'll find it by morning, we can head out together, I'll lead the way."

"You'll lead the way into a trap. Get real, we can never trust you again. You've proven where your loyalty lies, and it's not with us. Say the word, Aeris, and I'll send 'em both over the edge and out of our lives – and good riddance to them."

"Not Mog!" Cait Sith cried, "He doesn't know anything, he's just a fortune telling machine! Besides, I need to show you something with him."

Cloud readied his sword and Aeris was looking at the cat curiously. "What?" she asked.

"Like we said, talking won't make any difference. There's nothing I can do to convince you to go along happily with me. So I prepared something just in case. Why don't you listen to this?"

As if on cue, Mog opened his mouth and began to speak – only instead of a voice changer altering the sound of the voice, it was a normal human voice. A familiar voice.

"Papa? Tifa?"

"Marlene!"

Mog's mouth remained open as Marlene's voice came through a speaker inside the robot, "Hey! It's the flower lady! Flower lady!"

"Aeris?" Elmyra's voice came through as well, "Aeris are you safe?"

"Mom! Where are you?"

"That's enough," Cait Sith said and Mog closed its mouth.

"Mom! Mom!"

"You have to do as I say," Cait Sith nodded.

"You are the lowest," Cloud uttered, clipping his sword again.

"I didn't want to do this using dirty tricks and taking hostages. But this is how it is – no compromises. So why don't we continue on as we did?"

Aeris was beside herself, falling to her knees on the steps as the wind blew her hair into her face to hide her tears. On Cait Sith's order, Mog began to bound towards the pipeway to Ghost Square.

"They'll know where the temple is by morning," Cait Sith called back, "I'll tell you then. We'll get there after Shinra, but you'll just have to deal with that. Who knows, they might kill Sephiroth for you. As long as justice is served, right?"

"Don't speak of justice to me," Cloud hissed, "ever again."

* * *

Heidegger marched towards Rufus' desk as the helicopter landed behind the wall of glass. The clock said early morning, but the sky in Midgar was static as always; a dull grey. 

"Talk to me, Heidegger. Is the seventieth garrison ready to get to the Temple?"

"The seventieth is gone, Mr. President."

"Gone?"

"Killed at Fort Condor, it seems, by AVALANCHE."

"I find it funny that our spy wouldn't have learned that tidbit of information along their journey. Call him up here at once. How many survived?"

"Gyaa haa. Only the sergeant and a few squadlings. The sergeant is a half-Wutaian."

"That doesn't concern me, Heidegger. Get the rest of the twenty-fifth and the fourth moving with them, they're the only people that can search those jungles. I want every cadet in Junon scouting those Woodlands for the temple. I don't want Cloud waiting for us when we get there."

* * *

The lobby of the Ghost Hotel had a small corner where a small, lonely television sat. The cobwebs between the back of the set and the wall were a little too lifelike – a little farfetched for the Gold Saucer's usual artificiality. On the screen the morning news started. The face on the television was unfamiliar – the original anchor had been killed mid-broadcast during the Sector 7 bombing. The station had been rebuilt in Sector 2 and a young woman held papers studiously in front of her. 

"The Promised Land," she began, "a myth so tantalizing that it is impossible to pursue. But is it just a myth? A recent discovery in the Woodlands seems to ask otherwise. We are on the scene with Barnaby Tuesti, sergeant of Shinra's proud seventieth."

It cut to a man that Nanaki recognized immediately – the large scars on the right side of his face were in the shape of his snout, after all. It was a wonder he survived.

"Here in the remote corner of the world," Sergeant Tuesti began, "We've discovered an ancient ziggurat that we believe could be the key in finding the legendary Promised Land – the one that President Cathal was always looking for."

Cutting back to the anchor, she commented, "It seems that President Rufus Shinra has similar ambitions to lead humanity to a higher echelon of being, live from Shinra Headqarters, here is what the President has to say."

"Hello citizens. Neo-Midgar: it seemed a preposterous notion, too idealistic and mired in fantasy to make sense to any logical human being. As a human being, who makes mistakes, I too wrote off the notion as ridiculous. Since my father's death – in respect for his interests in the Planet's history – I have been looking into the prospect of finding such a Promised Land. The search continues for a land so rich in mako energy that prosperity would be boundless. This… temple of the Ancients, in time, could show us the way to such a land – and more importantly, what to do when we got there. Thank you and good morning."

"In other news, the Sector 6 worker's union has begun protesting in front of Shinra Headquarters today, pleading for Rufus to remove Derith Whiteshadow from power in the slums below. On the scene with the full story is—"

Barret's large hand flipped the dial that shut the television off. Cloud had been interested in the rest of the news story, but Barret stood before them.

"So the temple is in the Woodlands, then?" he asked.

Cloud nodded, "Cid, wake up."

Cid roused from his reclining position on the antiquated green leather couch. "What'd I miss?"

"The gondola's fixed. We need to get the Tiny Bronco going, we're heading to the Woodlands."

"Roger that, Cloud."

"Right," Barret huffed, "We get there, kill Sephiroth and then bust Marlene outta Shinra HQ, right?"

"That's the plan."

Cait Sith came around the corner and Barret pointed his gun at Mog, firing twice. The bullets went through the stuffed animal and two feathers fell to the floor behind him.

"Come on, Barret!" Cait Sith pleaded, "We can still get along."

"I don't get along with traitors!" he ran towards the cat and grabbed him by the arm, "This is gonna cost you a connivin' robot arm!"

"You'll be sorry!" Cait Sith warned, "I can't feel pain, but Marlene can. If I lose my arm, she just might lose hers, y'get what I'm saying?"

Barret held the robot up close to his face and snorted into its eyes. "When I find out who you are, I am gonna bust you up so fuckin' bad you'll wish you had lived in Sector 7."

"Enough," Cloud said, unrolling the world map across the coffee table. The eight of them gathered around and looked. Cloud traced a circle with his fingers around the Woodlands.

"So if the rest of the garrison from Fort Condor was able to reach it, and the armies from Junon were able to as well, then it should be just south of Fort Condor in the jungles there."

"There's nothing there but fruit plantations," Cait Sith said, walking off Mog and coming to the table, "The temple isn't there. Tseng told me that it's on one of the larger islands south of there, I would have to say that one." He pointed, one of his gloved fingers landed flatly over an island.

"How can we trust you?" Tifa asked.

"I have your friends locked in a cell in Shinra Headquarters. Do you really have a choice?"

"Oh I hate you," Tifa sat on the floor, "I hate you I hate you."

"Now, now," Cait Sith walked back to Mog, "Let's not get testy. We've got a long journey ahead of us. If you're nice, I might even be able to arrange some palaver between you and your friends."

* * *

The Tiny Bronco sailed past the sandbars that acted as kilometre posts between the West and East Continents. Mog sat with Barret in the middle and Barret stared at it, misty eyed. 

"Marlene?" he asked.

"I'm here, Papa! Where are you? I miss you."

"I'm off doin' some things, baby. But I'll be with ya soon. Are you all right? Are ya safe?"

"Yes, Papa, they saved us from the bad guy. He tried to kill me an' mom."

"Mom?"

"The flower lady's mom. I know she's not my real mom, but she's so mom-like."

"Y'all just be sure to know who yer real daddy is, y'hear?"

"You're my real daddy," Marlene laughed.

"Oh baby, I wish I could hold ya right now. I miss you so much. Who was tryin' to kill my little girl?"

"Some big bossman who hated you and Cloud. He used the 'T' word."

"Yeah, well, that'll happen with people who don't know what's up or down. But you're safe now, right? The bad man can't get to ya?"

"No he can't. Shinra's keepin' us real safe here."

Cait Sith crossed his arms and nodded his head triumphantly. Barret snarled at him.

"Oh daddy," said Marlene, "Don't make faces."

"You can see me?" he said.

"Yeah! There's a big telly where we can see you, and Cloud and Tifa and the big blue sea."

"Yeah, babe. We're playin' pirates out here in the ocean."

"I wish you would come see me," Marlene said.

"Well that'd be hard, with the Shinra hatin' me so. But soon we'll come an' get ya – I gotta present for you an' everything."

"Why does the Shinra hate you? They seem like nice people."

"Well sometimes when nice people get together under a stupid idea, they can do some pretty bad stuff."

"Like when you and Cloud fight."

"Ha ha! Exactly, sweet pea. Just like me an' Cloud."

"Papa don't cry, your face looks like plastic. Everyone'll think you're a dolly."

"Who's there with ya, sweetheart?"

"That's enough," Cait Sith said and Mog shut its mouth.

"Ya bastard!" Barret yelled, "Marlene! Try talkin' through Cait Sith! C'mon baby!"

"This microphone only responds to my voice," Cait Sith sighed, "Don't get tetchy and we'll all be hunky dory, you got it?"

"Captain!" Barret shouted.

"What is it?" Cid called back.

"Permission ta throw this piece a shit overboard?"

"Go for it, I don't know who they're holding at Shinra HQ."

"Best not, Barret," Cloud sighed, "He's not worth our energy."

"What if…" Tifa asked, "What if the temple of the Ancients is the Promised Land? Aeris, would that make sense?"

"The Promised Land is an idea, a whisper in the wind. It could even be the Lifestream for all I know. It might have been Midgar, but it's so polluted now you'd never be able to tell."

"Midgar, eh?" Barret asked, "You was able to grow flowers in your church, even after all the mako reactors were suckin' up all the Spirit Energy, right?"

"That's true," Aeris said, although something in her voice led Cloud to believe she thought otherwise. He was still convinced it was her natural healing abilities. They exchanged glances. How fortune ill favoured Cloud that his first date should be cut short by treachery. They had gone back to their separate rooms, nodding to one another and resigning to sleep after an hour or so of contemplation. Cloud couldn't shake the thought of Cait Sith being a spy, and of Yuffie Kisaragi, the brigand princess of Wutai, running off with materia concealed inside every pocket of her. His mind was plagued with thoughts of Aeris and Tifa and he tossed and turned until sleep finally took him.

"We're coming up on the island," Cid announced and they looked towards the beach. Beyond was a small field, lush and inviting. Beyond, jungles as far as the eye could see.

"It'll take days to look for the temple," Cloud sighed.

"Shinra's probably set up camp somewhere," Cait Sith mentioned, "We can follow smoke signals."

"Great idea, jackass," Cid grunted, "We'll see 'em great through all the fucking foliage. Let's just get a move on."

"The temple is here," Aeris suddenly whispered. "It's calling to me. Follow me!"

As soon as the plane washed up on shore Aeris leapt off and was running towards the jungle. She reached behind her back and the metal staff seemed to materialize out of thin air. She brought it to her front and stopped before the jungle began.

Cloud was close behind her.

"These jungles aren't friendly," Aeris announced, "get your sword ready, something in there doesn't want anyone but me coming through."

"Are you sure it's wise, then?" Nanaki asked, "For more than just you to go?"

"We can't let Aeris get hurt alone," Cait Sith said.

"Shu'up," was Barret's automatic response to Cait Sith, but he turned to the party, "Cloud, if Sephiroth's in there, d'ya really want Aeris to face'm alone?"

"Barret and Cait Sith are right, we're all going."

"Damnit," Cid grunted, leaning his spear over his shoulder. He lit up a cigarette, "What's the policy on just burning down the jungle?"

"Not only would that hurt an already dying Planet," Tifa rolled her eyes, "That would also put us in plain sight for any creature strong enough to survive a fire of that magnitude."

"I'm almost positive Shinra would have tried it first," Vincent added, "This jungle is probably fireproof."

"It was just a joke, fuck. Let's go."


	91. Book 4: The Maze of a Thousand Doors

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**The Maze of a Thousand Doors**

The ziggurat was in a clearing, a four sided pyramid with a cleaved-off top – and a small sheltered altar at the top, not visible to any of them. Over the moat – or what used to be a moat and was now a dry chasm between the jungle and the holy site – there was a bridge that connected the temple and the rest of the jungle. Aeris stepped onto the bridge, healing the cuts she had received the last few hours from giant and ferocious insects in the jungle. The Spirit Energy overwhelmed her and she buckled to her knees.

"This is the temple of the Ancients," she said with a certainty – despite the frailty in her voice. "I know it, I feel the knowledge of the Cetra, floating…" She laid down on the bridge, holding an ear to it, she spoke softly, "You could become one with the Planet. But you're stopping it with all of your will. For the future? For us?"

Cloud knelt beside her.

"Do you understand, Aeris?" he asked.

"You're uneasy, but happy? Because I'm here? I'm sorry… I don't understand."

Something collapsed at the top of the stairs, but they paid no heed to it. Aeris stood to the party.

"I want to go inside," she said with alarming resignation.

"The hell we waitin' for?" Cid asked, "That big bee nearly killed me, I don't wanna spend another second inside that jungle!"

Aeris ran up the great staircase that ascended up the middle of the pyramid towards the doorway. When she arrived at the top, she found a slumped figure in a black hooded cloak.

"Black… materia…" it uttered as Cloud arrived before him. Tifa was behind and she grabbed his wrist. The pale hand was outstretched in silent agony as they read the numbered tattoo.

"Nine," Tifa said aloud, "This man was number nine.

Suddenly, the hand turned to dust and crumpled under the grip of Tifa's forceful hand. The body disintegrated into the cloak.

"What the hell?" Barret asked.

Cid poked at the cloak with his spear, "The damn guy's disappeared! Is this what you meant by returning to the Planet?"

"I was thinking something more metaphysical," Aeris sighed.

"Jenova can transform," Vincent concluded, "Hojo numbered experiments in the Jenova Project, the cells inside of them must be under the will of Jenova. She must be able to turn them into anything she wants – even Sephiroth."

Cloud pondered this while Cid reached into the cloaks and pulled out something small and metal. He held it up for them all to inspect.

It was a bullet.

Cautiously, they entered the temple to find the altar in front of them. The room had no entrances or exits save the one they came through. Upon a dais there were strange markings and a spherical indent for the keystone. Sitting on the ground, leaning against it and holding a smoking gun was Tseng.

"Tseng!" Aeris cried, and ran to him. Tseng smiled, but the blood drooling from his mouth betrayed his demeanor.

"I've been had," he uttered tensely, nearly coughing. He tried to get up. Failing, he slumped back against the dais. "This isn't the Promised Land, it doesn't have any hints… only death is inside… Sephiroth is looking for…"

"Sephiroth is inside?" Cloud asked.

"Look for yourself," Tseng coughed, tossing the gun away and reaching into his jacket. He produced the keystone, and his arm fell weakly to the ground – a small clinking was heard as the glass knocked against the stone. "Damn," he smiled and shook his head, "Letting Aeris go was the start of my troubles. The President was wrong…"

"No," Aeris knelt down to him, "You're wrong. The Promised Land isn't like what you imagined. And I'm not going to help you. Your greed and ignorance got you here."

"That's pretty harsh," Tseng managed to prop himself up on the dais, "Sounds like something you'd say."

Vincent observed from the obscurity of his large red collar and mangy long hair. Tseng limped towards Cloud, stepping in pools of his own blood. He reached out and handed the keystone to Cloud. Slumping to the floor, he sat, propped up on the far wall. "The keystone," he instructed, "place it on the altar. Aeris…"

Death took him before he could finish his sentence. He sat against the wall, hands at his sides. Vincent walked up and knelt down beside the body. With his metallic hand, he closed Tseng's open eyes and stood back with the group.

Cloud didn't hesitate to put the keystone in the spherical indent. The patterns on the dais began to glow – as did a large square on the ground. The room was alit by the stone which was now a fluorescent cerulean – save for the large patches of Tseng's blood.

The glowing stone shifted and began to lower like an elevator below the room. They were cramped in tightly as they descended through a stone shaft, the dim light of the altar fading above them.

"Aeris? Are you crying?" asked Cloud.

Aeris shook her head before the light became to dim to see the tears streaming down her face. "Tseng is with our enemies, the Turks. But I've known him since I was little. There's not a lot of people I can say that about. In fact, there are probably only a handful of people in this world who actually know me."

Vincent exhaled curtly.

They arrived underground – it must have been underground, for the area was too big to fit inside the temple – in the largest labyrinth anyone could have hoped to imagine. For as far as they cared to look, staircases went up down and some ran sideways, challenging them to defy gravity. The place was crawling with MPs. The strange thing about this labyrinth, however, was the fact that some of the MPs were succeeding in climbing the sideways staircases, walking along walls as easily as the ground. No one seemed to have noticed them. There was an upside-down structures with a great cavernous doorway in which a Shinra MP stood upside-down – his helmet still firmly on.

"AVLANCHE is here!" he cried and fired upon them.

In a flash, Vincent was leaping ahead of them and pulled the gun from the strap on his leg. With two shots, the MP fell backwards onto the roof, as he hit, dust flew downwards and then settled again on the ceiling.

As Vincent continued to float towards the MP's body, he suddenly jerked mid-air and fell upwards, landing on the staircase that led from the ceiling. He stood upside-down.

"This whole area seems to have its own gravity pull," he called back to them, "Walls, ceilings, they all act as ground here."

"That makes this a little more difficult," Cloud surveyed, "Seeing as how I've already lost count of all the doorways in here, and I can't see even half the maze."

"Whatever's in here is well protected," Tifa said, "The Cetra knew their stuff."

Cloud looked at the wall adjacent to them. He placed his foot on the wall and attempted to shift his weight onto his foot. He suddenly became disoriented – as he pushed with his foot, the world seemed to tilt – like balancing on a two-legged chair. Eventually, he let his other foot go and stood up straight. It seemed as if the rest of the party stood eerily on the wall – the blood his head adjusted itself and he walked forward.

"We can use this to our advantage," he said.

"So can they," Nanaki pointed out.

"That's true. They're sparse, though, not expecting a fight. They're looking for something that can tell them about the Promised Land. We'll split up into three groups. Aeris and Tifa, you're with me."

"Surprise, surprise," Barret smiled.

"Barret, you're the leader of squad two, which will consist of you, Nanaki and Cid. Vincent, you and Cait Sith will be together."

"Why only two of us?" the robot cat whined.

"Because if Vincent transforms, I don't want anyone real as a liability," Cloud snapped, "If you'd like to turn back you're certainly welcome to."

Cait Sith said nothing and Vincent leapt towards them, flipping midair and landing gracefully in front of them.

"All right. At least one PHS per team. If you find anything, keep the rest informed."

* * *

The doors mostly led to chests, already opened and robbed by Shinra MPs. The rooms were oddly dark – outside was unnaturally light with no known light source. It seemed as if a great light spell had been cast permanently upon the maze. 

Nanaki crawled along the wall like an insect which made Barret uneasy, although it did provide more walking room for the giant and for Cid as well. The hall they had been winding through for the last half hour opened up into a great chasm. While consciously they knew that a fall would only throw them against the wall of the chasm, they still were clear of the edge. Nanaki walked to the edge slowly and peered over. He brought his head back quickly as bullet flew past him and hit the ceiling. They could hear footsteps running up the wall closer to them. Timing it perfectly, Nanaki swiped over the edge and the MP tumbled, falling past them and breaking his neck on the ceiling, lying crippled above them.

"Thirteen down," Cid lit up a cigarette, "how many fuckin' guys do they have in this place?" Without dropped his smoke, he turned around and hurled his spear down the hallway they had just come through. It hit its mark and the MP sneaking up behind them fell backwards. "That's fourteen, I'm running outta cigarettes."

* * *

"Words…" Aeris whispered, "Feelings… there's so many of them here." 

"What a strange place," Tifa almost smiled as she looked forty metres above them at Vincent walking on the ceiling with Cait Sith in tow. From so high up they looked like small speckles, the only distinction being the long cape and massive Mog. "Do you think we're welcome here?" she asked.

"Intruders!" an MP shouted from above them. From an upside-down staircase, he fired at them and Cloud leapt from the bullets, slowing to a stop mid-air. Neither the MP nor Cloud were sure what to make of this, but before the MP could react Cloud threw his sword at the MP and he dodged barely. Tifa finished him with a small fire spell.

Cloud floated mid-air. "I think," he said, "I'm caught between gravitational pulls. I'm not sure which was is up or down."

"Get ready!" Tifa shouted and jumped to meet him. When she arrived, she pushed as hard as she could on Cloud and they both fell away from the centre, landing on opposite walls.

"Phew!" Aeris smiled, "That was strange. Don't give up guys. I know it's hard but we can do this."

Cloud retrieved his sword and ran to meet them, still taking caution when stepping from wall to floor.

"I'm not even sure which way is the real 'up' anymore," Tifa sighed, "I'd say we're lost, but we didn't know where we were going in the first place."

"There's another doorway up ahead," Aeris pointed, "Let's go that way!"

Cloud's PHS gave a series of short beeps and he answered.

"What's the news?" he asked as he flicked it on.

Crackling through the PHS was the sound of gunfire. "Uhh guys!" shouted Cait Sith, "We've found the rest of the garrison! A little help would be appreciated."

"We should help Vincent," Tifa suggested.

"On the way!" Cid yelled cheerily into the PHS, "I can see you guys! We're comin' over."

"We don't know where you are," Cloud said into the PHS, "good luck."

"Don't need it!" Cid laughed.

Cloud, Aeris and Tifa entered the doorway.

* * *

Vincent had been shot numerous times and was on one knee. "Stop!" Cait Sith shouted, "Don't shoot! I'm with Shinra! Sergeant Barnaby knows me!" 

"Liars!" shouted an MP, "kill the terrorists!"

With a great snapping sound, Vincent's cape fell off of him. As he stood again, his clothes discarded themselves onto a heap in the floor.

"What the hell?" cried an MP.

"Better hide, Mog!" Cait Sith cried.

Vincent began to transform, but not into the galian beast as he had before. He looked at his hands with fear and wonderment as they became a thick metallic shape, his fingers swelling together. He began to shake as his body grew into a huge metallic golum, a gigas of death. The MPs resumed their firing but the bullets bounced harmlessly off of the great iron body that slowly began to stagger towards them.

"Vincent has transformed," Cait Sith shouted into the PHS, "Better steer clear."

"Too late," Barret announced from behind the cat, but his eyes were fixated upon Vincent's new form. "This ain't the galian beast."

"No it's not!" Cait Sith whimpered, "It's even bigger!"

Grenades rolled under the death gigas but their explosions caused minimal damage upon this new demon. Raising his hands to the sky, he brought them down in a mechanical choking motion. Nine of the ten MPs suddenly began to shake and convulse underneath their full faced masks.

"What's it doing?" Cid asked.

Their flesh began to smoke underneath their armour and the MPs fell to the ground, dead. The last MP was frozen in shock and the death gigas lumbered towards him. He shook himself out of it and fired hopelessly at the gigas. When it reached him, it reached out a hand and without trying it crushed his head in his hand. The death gigas threw the MP against the wall, where the artificial gravity held him in place.

Looking around for more to kill, the death gigas did not see the hidden party members. His quench for death satisfied, he slowly transformed back into Vincent, who, naked, surveyed the scene.

Cid carried Vincent's clothes out of their hiding place and gave them to him. "How many demons did Hojo put inside of you?"

"We'll have to see," Vincent said coldly, unsure of what to make of the scene, "These men have been electrocuted. The last one used fire, this one used lightning. We shall see who comes out next."

"Let's hope no one," Cait Sith commented.

"I didn't destroy you in my rage?" Vincent asked, finishing his dressing ritual by clipping his cape onto his back, "Pity." He swiped his permanently metallic hand and the cape flipped dramatically behind him.

"There they are!" came a gruff voice, "All hands, kill AVALANCHE!"

They looked up at the ceiling to see the enemy sergeant pointing at them, flanked by thirty MPs, with more rushing out from a nearby doorway.

"Too many bullets!" Barret cried, "Run!"

Nanaki cast a brief fire spell – he hit his very precise mark inside of a grenade. The shrapnel killed three MPs instantaneously and injured another. "Down!" Barnaby cried and the MPs began to drop from the ceiling like rain, landing hard behind the party and giving chase.

"Through a door!" Barret shouted as they ran, "Tag 'em as they come through!"

"That doesn't help with grenades," Vincent warned, "We need—ack!" a bullet clipped his shoulder. "Open ground, somewhere where we can move around."

They ran into a hallway. The first two MPs who followed were consumed by a massive fire spell Nanaki had been concentrating on for a long while.

"At the end of this hallway!" Cid remembered, "There's a big drop – lots of room to jump around like a panty-waist numbskull like you!"

As if responding to that, Vincent leapt out of the hallway and gracefully landed on the ceiling, aiming at the hallway's entrance as Barret, Cid, Nanaki and finally Cait Sith leapt out of the hallways and down into the great chasm, landing clumsily on the wall. Vincent aimed at where the pursuers were about to emerge – but after a long pause they did not. Vincent leapt to meet the rest of the party.

"Their attack has ceased for now, I believe."

"Nonsense," Cid shook his head, "They're discussing battle tactics."

"I got all the tactics they need right here!" Barret cried and threw himself over the edge, landing at the entrance to the hallway. He fired into the darkness and almost at once, MPs scattered from the hallway, running on the floor, ceiling and walls like ants. Barret was killing one every few seconds. Vincent aimed carefully as he leapt between walls of the chasm. He took down less than Barret's senseless mowing of the wall – but his hits were more precise, he took less damage than Barret, who had numerous bullets in his armour and arms.

"Where's Aeris when ya need 'er?!" Barret shouted and continued to fire. Nanaki took out a few with fire spells. Cid hesitated throwing his spear – he knew he wouldn't be able to get it back again.

Sergeant Barnaby emerged from the hallway last, unsheathing two long swords from his back. Barret fired but his bullets were blocked lightning fast by the swords.

"Your blood is weak," Barnaby laughed. Nanaki leapt over the edge and roared at Barnaby, who stumbled back briefly in surprise, but then began to laugh.

Nanaki was hit with numerous bullets. "Take down the beast!" Barnaby yelled.

Cid crawled over the edge and threw his spear at Barnaby but it was repelled again by the sword. With Cid exposed, bullets – real bullets – pounded into his back. Coughing up blood, he retreated back onto the chasm wall. He looked at Cait Sith, unharmed, who began to walk towards him.

"I didn't expect to die here," Cid coughed, "You led us into a trap… you bastard…"

"I swear I did not!" Cait Sith defended himself, but gave up. What was the use if he was to be dead within seconds.

Barret was on one knee in front of Barnaby, who held both swords high in the air. Nanaki – too crippled to move, could only growl meekly as Barnaby drew in for the finishing blow.

As the swords came down, Barret vanished into thin air; the swords crossed one another, no satisfying friction of flesh, no spine-snapping glory. No victory.

In fact, Nanaki had disappeared into thin air as well. As had Vincent and Cid, and even the robotic cat. Barnaby looked down the chasm. They were nowhere to be found.

There was a rumbling in the hallways behind him. He began to turn to look but was hit by what felt like a brick wall. It slammed into him from behind and threw him down into the chasm, where he was thrown against the far wall. The wall poured over him and he found it was unbearably cold water. After the splash had ceased battering him, he turned to look at the hallway. Water poured out of the blackness onto the ceiling and floor, knocking all of the MPs to their knees.

A hissing erupted from the blackness of the hallway – a hissing so shrill it burst the eardrums of all of the MPs – they clutched their ears and screamed. Barnaby could feel blood drooling towards the wall underneath him – he could hear nothing.

Out of the hallway – silently – a serpent swam through the air. It was six metres long, thin and covered in crisp blue scales. Its whiskers were metres long and they trailed behind the pointed, refined beak. The massive fins spread majestically as the creature curled around itself. It was a hideous beauty as it screamed at the deaf Barnaby – his brain shook with the vibrations of the voice.

"You are…" he muttered, although he could not hear it himself, "You are Leviathan!"

The king of the Wutaian gods opened his massive beak and swallowed Barnaby Tuesti whole, exploding into a great tidal wave, an airborne tsunami that killed every last MP in the room. Forty lives gone in an instant – the water evaporated as soon as the spell was over – and the body of Barnaby fell back onto the chasm wall.

The party reappeared from the ether exactly where they had been. There was no time to digest what had happened.

"Nanaki!" Cait Sith shouted, "I need a phoenix down here, quickly!"

Nanaki limped over to Cait Sith – over the edge and towards Cid, who was now unconscious. Cait Sith grabbed a red potion from Nanaki's side-pouch and poured it into Cid's mouth.

As Cid began to glow with life, Nanaki felt better as well. He sensed that someone was casting a healing spell on him. When he was strong enough to speak, he asked, "Aeris?"

Cid was standing straight, poking at the holes in his shirt and holding numerous bullets in his hands. "Shit," was all he could mutter, "What the hell happened?"

They moved back over the edge where Barret stood at the entrance to the hallway, looking into the darkness.

Yuffie Kisaragi strutted out of the hallway, feeling rather proud of herself and smiling broadly at them all. "Are we even now?" she asked.

"Don't tell me you've got hostages too, now," Cid shrugged.

"Wutai means everything to me," Yuffie explained in a dark tone, more serious than they had ever seen her. "But if we don't save the Planet, there won't be a Wutai left." That being said, she exhaled with relief, and placed her arms akimbo. "So here's the deal, nice and simple. Me and my materia kick some ass for you for the rest of the day, and after Sephiroth is good and dead, then we'll talk about who needs what. Are we agreed?"

Barret looked at Yuffie for a long time, "Cloud left me in charge of this squad," he finally said, "and I sure as hell don't need materia. At the end of the day, Cloud takes over again, and you bet your britches he'll have t'do some contemplatin' about you comin' back. Until that bridge comes, we jes' won't cross it."

Yuffie nodded, "Right."

Barret nodded back, "Okay, traitors take point. Cait Sith and Yuffie, fronta the line."

Cait Sith was standing by the body of Sergeant Barnaby. "He was a good soldier," Cait Sith sighed, "loyal at least, if misguided. So many shades of grey, no one here are really enemies, just victims of circumstance. I wonder if Jenova and Sephiroth are the same…"

"What'd you do?" Yuffie asked Cait Sith as they walked along a new path.

"I've been a Shinra spy this whole time," Cait Sith replied.

"And they let _you_ stay? What a bummer, frankly, I'm insulted."

* * *

The long, dark walkway led to a stone platform with a pool of water in the centre. It glowed an eerie violet. As Aeris approached, it flashed briefly, and Cloud cringed at the light. 

"Oh no!" Aeris screamed, "Cloud! Come quick!" she rushed to the pool of water and gazed inside. Cloud followed her.

"It's full of the knowledge of the Cetra. No, not knowledge. A consciousness; a living soul... It's trying to say something. I'm sorry, I don't understand. Show me? You're going to show me?"


	92. Aeris' Recollection: The Fatal Wounding

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

** Chapter 12**

**Aeris' Recollection: The Fatal Wounding**

_The Planet speaks to me, it shows me what I need to see._

_Tseng observed the murals in the Golden Hall. He stood, squinting at them, trying to understand what they meant. He held his wrist behind his back and leaned closer to one of the murals.Iit was crudely carved, but there were people. So many people, with their arms in the air, their mouths in contorted 'o' shapes. Above them, a piece of coal, a flaming rock in the sky. The Planet knows what it means, but it's hesitating to tell me. It's waiting until the time is right._

_"Mr. Tseng," Elena said, entering the Golden Hall, but when she arrived, she stopped and looked around in awe. "Holy shit," she uttered, "so this is what you were so enamoured with."_

_"Tell Reno and Rude to ready the helicopter," Tseng sighed, "We've searched every inch of this place, and there's no sign of black materia or anything that can help Rufus. I have no idea what these murals mean, either."_

_"Sir, what do you suppose the black materia does?"_

_"I don't think it does what Rufus wants it to. I also doubt that anyone besides Sephiroth or an Ancient can use it."_

_"But you're an Orunai, aren't you?"_

_"Abnormally long life doesn't dictate magical prowess. We're not going to find anything here, we're wasting our time. I'll be up in a minute, call Cait Sith and tell him that I'll give Cloud the keystone when he gets here."_

_Elena nodded and turned._

_"Elena..."_

_"Yes?"_

_"What are you doing when we get back to Midgar?"_

_"Nothing, sir."_

_"You'll be hungry. Let me take you out to dinner."_

_Somewhat stunned, Elena stammered, "A-alright. Yes sir. If I may be excused."_

_She turned and left in a hurry, smiling broadly. Tseng smiled as well. He hummed at the wall, thinking out loud. "Is this the Promised Land? No, it can't be…"_

_With a flash, Sephiroth was in the room with him! He was kneeling, so low that his white hair caressed the golden floors. His sword was pointed straight up – menacingly. He seemed to be glowing – almost transitory, pulsing with electrical energy._

"_Sephiroth!" Tseng cried in surprise._

"_You've opened the door for me," Sephiroth said, "Well done."_

_Tseng looked around, almost resigning himself right then and there to his fate. There was something in his eyes, a look of defeat that I've never seen before. He took a step towards Sephiroth, but stopped when Sephiroth stood up. Oh no, Tseng knows he's going to die..._

"_This place," Tseng asks through his fear – he's almost calm now, at peace with it. "What is this place?"_

"_A lost treasure house of knowledge," Sephiroth replied, just as eerie and just as calm, as if they both know what it about to happen. We all know. I don't want to see this. "The knowledge of the Ancients, their wisdom flows through here."_

_He raised his arms – his sword too. He looked at the golden ceiling and said slowly, "I am becoming one with the Planet."_

"_One with the Planet?" Tseng asked._

_Sephiroth sizzled with energy. A strange energy that the Planet can sense, an unnaturalness to him. He lowered his arms. "You stupid fools. You have never even thought about it. All the spirit energy of this Planet. All its wisdom... knowledge... I will meld with it all. I will become one with it... It will become one with me."_

"_You can do that?" Tseng asked._

"_The way…" Sephiroth looked at Tseng for the first time, "…lies here. ONLY DEATH AWAITS YOU ALL!"_

_Oh Cloud, it's terrible. It's absolutely awful. Before he screamed, he was eerily calm. Tseng and him stood looking at each other with a devine peace. And suddenly, with that sentence many things happened._

_With a flash, Sephiroth was lunging towards him. The sword was down. His voice boomed around the golden halls. "ONLY—" Tseng's eyes went wide "—DEATH—" The sword pierced his belly "AWAITS YOU ALL!"_

_Tseng's tattered body flew through the air, the sword sliding back out of his middle – blood sprayed everywhere! He collapsed on the floor. Sephiroth began to walk towards him as Tseng grabbed his stomach in pain._

"_But do not fear," Sephiroth said as calmly as before, looking down at Tseng, who is squirming – tears are falling down his face. "For it is through death that new spirit energy is born. Soon, you will live again as a part of me."_

_With a flash, Sephiroth was gone. And in time, so was Tseng._


	93. Book 4: The Golden Hall

**THE JENOVA PROJECT**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land **

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**The Golden Hall**

"Sephiroth is here, isn't he?" Cloud asked. It had been silent for a long time after Aeris' experience. She knelt beside the pool, staring solemnly into it. Tifa knelt beside her with a gently hand on her back. Cloud stood opposite them, contemplating. "It ends here," he concluded, "No matter what he thinks. It ends here. I'm taking him out."

"We'll be here too," Tifa nodded, "You won't have to do it alone."

"I hope the others are all right," Aeris sighed, "even Vincent seems to have been wronged by Sephiroth personally. Maybe it's funny – I've chased him around the world and he's never even crossed me. I just want to know. To know why. To know who I am, my purpose as a Cetra."

"I'm sure he'll let you ask him before he 'becomes one with the Planet,'" Cloud huffed sarcastically. Aeris stood up and walked around the pool to him.

"You must be tired," she shook her head.

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Just hang in there. Someday we'll look back on these times and laugh."

"Let's find the room with the murals," Cloud said. There was another door beyond the pool.

Cloud's PHS rang.

"Where are you at?" Cid asked.

"We're getting somewhere," Cloud said, "We're looking for a room with murals on it – a big hall plated in gold. Have you seen anything like that?"

"Nope," Cid sighed, "But the temple is officially Shinra free."

"Good. Where are you?"

"Outside. I don't know how the fuck we got here. One of the doorways just led right out into the jungle. Once we walked out, the door disappeared and we can't get back in. Looks like you're on your own for killing Sephiroth. Good luck, buddy."

"Thanks, be careful until we get back."

"Y'all better come back!" Barret shouted faintly in the background. The call ended.

* * *

Torchlit hallways wound them about for hours. They arrived upon a great double door – made of wood but adorned with gold in the same striking curve motion as the symbol on Bugenhagen's machine. Not the same symbol, but it reminded Cloud of it.

"I think we found it," he said and pushed with all of his might on the thick wood.

They slowly creaked open and Cloud, Aeris and Tifa found themselves in the Golden Hall. It was almost unsettling to the eye – after so much darkness, all the light furrowed their brows and they squinted for a few seconds.

When their eyes settled, they were looking upon a great hall, bigger than the temple itself. From floor to ceiling – forged in gold – were murals. When they stepped inside, the thudding of Aeris' combat boots and the clicking of Tifa's boots echoed from golden wall to golden wall. Tifa and Aeris passed over each mural with glazed eyes – with nothing more than a vague idea of what the murals were portraying and knowing less about any rhyme or reason for these pictures.

Cloud was looking for the symbol – Bugenhagen's symbol. If he could find a mural depicting it, perhaps it might answer a thing or two. After a few minutes of silent observation, they found it. It was a plain mural, depicting only a humanoid figure. The form was indistinct; it lacked the detail to discern whether it was a male or female. Two things were clear about it. The first was the symbol, plain as day covering its entire upper body. The second was a single wing extending out towards the heavens.

"What's that?" Aeris asked, "a one-winged angel?"

"Are there angels in Ancient faith?"

"No. There are monsters though, and this looks like one."

"Chiara the mapmaker told me that all monsters are as animal as us."

"That's because they come from the Lifestream," Aeris replied, "They have the same spirit energy. This being is a monster – I can feel it. Ruthless evil."

They were in the centre of the hall now, and Cloud could see all corners of it. It was empty – there was a statue at the far end, but it was translucent and Sephiroth was not behind it.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted, echoing over himself. "Show yourself!"

As if answering, the room flashed a brilliant white. Cloud couldn't help but twitch his cheek in aggravation. Sephiroth knelt before them as he had done before Tseng. His sword was pointed up in the air, his long silver hair hiding his face. He stood up slowly and faced them.

"So cold," he smiled, "I am always by your side."

Cloud couldn't bring himself to draw his sword just then – as the look that Sephiroth was giving him was friendly, serene. He turned away from them and began to walk towards the far end. He motioned with his hand to get them to follow. "Come," he said slowly.

They followed him until he stopped in front of a mural. He crossed his arms in front of it and tilted his head so that his silver bangs were not in front of his eyes. He was smiling madly at it.

"Splendid," he commented, "A treasure house of knowledge."

"I don't understand what you're saying!" Cloud hissed.

Sephiroth turned and looked at Cloud, "Look well."

"At what?"

"At that which adds to the knowledge of…" he trailed off, suddenly disinterested in what he was saying, as if a new revelation had taken precedence in his mind, "I am becoming one with the Planet," he said matter-of-factly and began to walk again.

They reached the statue at the end of the room. And Sephiroth examined it. It seemed be a holographic model of the temple's pyramid shell – although Cloud could see no projection equipment anywhere – like most of the temple, instead of machines working things it was ancient magic.

Sephiroth was somewhere else, staring up at the ceiling, almost bobbing his head. He was flashing with an intangible electricity, pulsing with energy almost like the hologram behind him. "Mother… it's almost time. Soon we will become one."

"How do you intend to become one with the Planet?" Aeris asked.

"It's simple," Sephiroth looked at her as if she should instinctively know, as if she was asking how to tie a shoelace. "One the Planet is hurt," he chuckled, "it gathers spirit energy to heal the wound. The amount of energy gathered depends on the size of the injury. What would happen if there was an injury that threatened the very life of the Planet? Think of how much energy would be gathered!" He paused to cackle, "At the centre of that injury will be me. All that boundless energy will be mine. By merging with all of the energy of the Planet, I will become a new life form, a new existence. Melding with the Planet – I will cease to exist as I am now, only to be reborn as a god to rule over every soul."

"An injury powerful enough to destroy the Planet?" Aeris asked.

"Behold that mural," Sephiroth pointed at the mural which he had been examining, "The ultimate destruction magic: Meteor."

"That'll never happen!" Cloud shouted, and tried to draw his sword. Before his fingers wrapped around the handle, Sephiroth was already flying into him, knocking the three of them onto the ground.

"Wake up!" boomed Sephiroth's voice and when Tifa and Aeris were on their feet, Sephiroth and Cloud were gone.


	94. Book 4: The Black Materia

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

** Chapter 14**

**The Black Materia**

Sephiroth had disappeared entirely, but Cloud was halfway to the end of the Golden Hall. He had stopped in front of a mural and was staring at it peculiarly. Aeris and Tifa rushed to him to find he was trembling. His body flashed with the same electricity as Sephiroth had moments before.

"Cloud!" Aeris called.

Cloud's head swivelled to look at them. His mouth was curled into a maniacal grin, but his eyes were vacant, they glowed without life, left only with the mako mark. He turned back to the mural – the one depicting the flaming rock in the sky. He began to laugh.

"Hey, Cloud!" Tifa cried.

Cloud laughed, "Black materia," he managed to utter, "call Meteor."

"Cloud, get a hold of yourself!" Aeris ordered.

He raised his hands to his head as if to fight something inside of himself. He clutched at his yellow hair and fell to his knees.

"Cloud…" he shook, "I'm Cloud… How should I?..."

He began to convulse before them – it almost seemed as if there were two of him, the electricity pulsed and wobbled – they sensed it but not with their eyes. They felt the presence of another person inside of Cloud – someone thrashing about like he was on the floor.

He stopped shortly and the feeling passed – Tifa and Aeris held each other in fear. Cloud lay on the golden floor looking up at the ceiling.

"I remember," He said calmly, "I remember my way."

In less than a second he was standing up and brushing himself off – as if nothing had just happened.

"Cloud," Aeris began.

"Yes?" he asked, "Is something wrong?"

His eyes were full of life again – for a moment even Tifa and Aeris doubted their memories of what had just transpired. Aeris shook her head resolutely, "It's nothing, Cloud. It's nothing so don't worry about it. Sephiroth got away."

Cloud looked to and fro, confirming that fact, "Don't worry about it," he said, "I understood what he was saying, and he doesn't have the black materia yet." He turned to face the mural again, "So this must be Meteor, right?"

"Is something going to fall from the sky?" Tifa asked.

"This is the magic that Sephiroth was talking about," Aeris looked at the mural, "the ultimate destructive magic. Meteor. It finds small drifting Planets with its magic and then collides with them. This Planet might get wiped out entirely."

"Is there any sign of Sephiroth?" Cloud looked around again.

"He disappeared," Aeris confirmed.

Cloud moved to the hologram. Aeris and Tifa followed him. "What is this?" he asked.

"There's something written on it," Aeris looked at the plaque below the hologram. It was written in a gibberish Cloud could not understand – nor Tifa. It didn't even look like words – numerous swooping lines together in a long interweaving string.

"Black materia," Aeris said after a few moments, "This writing says black materia. What should we do, Cloud?"

Cloud looked at the hologram. Was that the black materia? Did Sephiroth miss it? Surely here in the golden hall would be the place to keep it. He reached out and tried to grab the hologram. The room shook as if there was a great earthquake beneath them.

"Whoa!" Aeris stumbled back a few steps. "Hold on a minute. I'll ask."

Aeris stepped away from them for a second and closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply, filling herself with the temple air. Cloud and Tifa were silent for her sake – she was attempting to make a connection with the energy and knowledge of the temple.

After a few moments, she began to nod slowly. Tifa and Cloud could feel the small tug of magic coming from Aeris – as if she was casting a spell. Her neck tensed up and she knitted her brow. Before releasing and opening her eyes.

"The temple itself is the black materia." She said with absolute certainty.

"What does that mean? This huge temple? This is the black materia? Then no one could take it."

"Hmm," Aeris hummed, "Well it's pretty hard. This here is a model of the temple – and inside is a device that gets smaller each time you solve a puzzle. As the model becomes smaller, the temple becomes smaller as well until it's small enough to fit inside your hand."

"So if we solve the puzzles, the black materia will get smaller and smaller until we take it out?"

"Yes but there's one thing – the puzzles can only be solved inside of the temple – so anyone who wants to solve them will be crushed."

"I see – the Ancients didn't want such dangerous magic to be taken out of the temple so easily."

"So let's just leave it here," Tifa suggested.

"No!" Cloud said a little too quickly, "We've got to think of a way to get it out. Because Sephiroth has a lot of flunkies, it's nothing for him to throw their lives away just to get at the black materia. This place isn't safe."

He poked the hologram and the room trembled in response.

"So what are we going to do?" Aeris asked.

Cloud's PHS rang. He picked it up and explained the story to Barret, who relayed it simply to everyone within earshot.

Everyone was silent until Barret passed the PHS to Cait Sith, who spoke into it. "Hey, Cloud! It's Cait Sith! Everything you said makes perfect sense. You can use my stuffed body for the future of the Planet!"

"We can't let Sephiroth get his hands on the black materia," Cloud explained, "But we can't let Shinra Inc. get their hands on it either."

"There's nothing else you can do. Trust me. I'll solve the puzzles and you pluck the materia out of the ruins. Easy as pie. I'll be waiting at the top for you."

* * *

They left the Golden Hall and back through the temple maze – again searching impossibly for one door out of a thousand. Aeris and Tifa walked closely together, a little wary of Cloud. Indeed, the bonds of trust had broken within the party. It had been betrayal after betrayal, unyielding perfidy since the day they had met Cait Sith and Barret's loyalty came under question. And now it was the party leader that Tifa and Aeris knitted their brows at – as close as they were to him. Cloud was a wedge between their friendship; it was an unspoken understanding, a shared affection for the ex-SOLDIER. Seeing him at his weakest brought the girls closer together, and they let Cloud take point a metre ahead.

The maze was empty; a few bodies still lay along the ceiling and walls – dispatched by AVALANCHE's weapons. It was eerily silent. They came upon a doorway with an inscription over the heading. It was the same antiquated writing that made Cloud and Tifa squint in confusion – but Aeris seemed to force the lines into words inside of her brain – she read out slowly, "Demon's Gate."

"A gateway outside?" Tifa asked.

"Doesn't sound too inviting," Aeris commented.

"Well we've been fine so far," Cloud smiled, and walked into the darkness of the doorway.

Aeris walked into the room last, as Tifa used her fire materia to ignite a wall torch. The torches illuminated the room – and a horrifying statue before them. It seemed like a huge creature emerging from within the wall – only the arms and long neck protruded from the great flat wall behind them. At the end of the neck was an eyeless head, with great maws lined with sharp teeth. It seemed too lifelike – too detailed – to be made of stone.

"I have a foreboding about this place," Aeris said, "We should turn back."

"No," Cloud shook his head, "Behind this statue is the door outside. Don't you feel that breeze?"

Aeris didn't feel the breeze from where she was, but she heard the wind outside. Tifa lit the last torch.

"All right," she said, "Let's figure this out."

As the torch sparked to life, something seemed to move inside the statue. Aeris spotted something from the corner of her eye but when she focused on it, she saw nothing. Cloud jumped back.

"Did you see that?" he asked.

"I'm sure there's another exit out there somewhere," Tifa nodded, "Let's go."

As if on cue, the stone statue's hands stretched out and a pulse of energy flew past them. The light from the maze outside faded as a wall materialized in the doorway. It was only the dim light of the torches between them and what they assumed was the Demon's Gate.

Chips of stone fell to the floor as the arms and head thrashed about – still framed in the solid rock wall. The roar that emitted from its throat, however, was very menacing.

"This is a magical guardian," Aeris explained after putting her ear to the wind, "It's been blocking this entrance since the temple was abandoned, to ward people from getting in. If we destroy it, we leave the temple vulnerable for anyone to enter."

"Or get out," Tifa bared her fists.

"Right," Cloud nodded, "Can you tell us anything about destroying it?"

The demon's gate pointed its claws at the floor and another pulse of energy rocked the room. It slowly began to slide towards them, bringing its massive head closer to theirs.

"It's coming!" Tifa cried, "It'll crush us! Can we kill it?"

Aeris threw her staff in front of her, ignoring them. Her staff flew through the air and suddenly stopped. Tifa assumed it was caught between gravity pulls, but saw that numerous materia stones in the staff were glowing.

Aeris knelt to the floor and began to quickly pray. The magic tug that Tifa felt exhausted her – it was as if her very life force was being drained out of her by Aeris' casting.

When the spell was released, Tifa physically rocked back away from Aeris, her vision blinked in and out but she was overwhelmed by a sense of euphoria. The lightness faded into a confidence, a feeling of invincibility. She ran towards the demon's gate who thrust his arm towards her. When the stone claw hit her belly, she felt and heard the crunching of her insides, but the pain lasted less than a second, and the claw bounced harmlessly away. Tifa was almost as surprised as the demon's gate, which hesitated for a moment – long enough for Tifa to scratch away at it with her spiked gloves. She seemed in perfect health.

Aeris continued to kneel and Tifa looked back at her. It seemed that the girl was glowing – and when Tifa looked at her hands, she almost seemed like she was glowing as well.

Was this the extent of Aeris' powers within the temple? She was healing them so fast that it made them invulnerable?

Cloud was leaping towards the wall ripping the buster sword away from its magnetic sheath. The sword collided with the wall and did minimal damage. Cloud was grabbed by the wall and thrown across the room. He crashed against the far wall and chunks of the ancient stone propelled outwards and towards the floor. Such an impact should have killed him, but he landed on his feet gracefully, looking behind him to make sure that he was correct in assuming what had happened.

The wall closed in on them, shrinking their moving room. Soon, Cloud had no choice but to sheath his sword lest it be crushed between the wall and him. The head tried to bite at their flesh but their skin was hard as stone it seemed, and the stone teeth chipped away as it attacked them ferociously.

Aeris' staff was crushed by the moving demon wall – the materia falling loose and rolling along the floor. It still glowed with Aeris' power. The wall created little breathing room and soon had them pegged against the wall.

"I guess this is goodbye," Tifa cried.

Their skin still glowed with Aeris' protection spell. The wall slowed, inhibited by their bodies remaining in tact. Their sturdiness overpowered the wall and it could not crush them. Aeris concentrated as hard as she could.

The feeling of confidence was overwhelming. The demon's gate began to crush itself against them – creating imprints of their bodies within itself. The wilder it tried to crush them, the more their bodies began to crumble it. Soon it was flat against the wall – Tifa could see nothing but rock all around her – an exact casing of her body, so fit that she felt discomfort in her breasts but that was the extent of the pain. The rest was a shattering euphoria, Aeris' spell continued even in these dire circumstances. The wall continued to crush itself against the far wall until Tifa found the time was right and punched as hard as she could against the rest of the demon's gate in front of her. Her fist went through the thin piece of rock and opened up into the rest of the room. Light shone from the back – a doorway lay beyond.

The demon wall slammed into her again and knocked her back – but the hole became larger and she was able to crawl out. She stood on the other side of the demon's gate – watching the wall slowly crumble to reveal Cloud and Aeris standing against the wall – which gave way once more into the maze of a thousand doors. They brushed the dust off of themselves.

"Aeris…" Tifa began.

"We'll talk about it later," Aeris nodded, "Call Cait Sith and tell him where this entrance is."

Cloud picked up the phone as he plucked a chunk of stone out of his mangled yellow hair.

* * *

A few minutes later, Mog bounded through the entrance, Cait Sith riding atop.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," came the cheery, robotic voice. "I'll handle the rest… what happened to you guys?"

The spell had long since faded and they stood there covered in dust.

"We were nearly crushed by a moving wall."

"I'll look out for those," the cat nodded, "Well, take care of yourselves."

As Mog waddled past them, Aeris reached out and patted its head, "Cait Sith," she said.

Mog stopped and Cait Sith turned to face them – the robotic face always smiling.

"Come on, Cloud," Aeris prodded, "Say something."

"I'm not good at this," Cloud scratched his head.

Cait Sith nodded, "I understand. I feel the same, too."

Aeris suddenly had a brilliant and hilarious idea. She clasped her hands together (which sent dust exploding around her) "Why don't you read our fortunes!"

"Say that's right!" Cait Sith laughed, "I haven't done that in a while! Right or wrong, I'm still a walking fortune telling machine! Now what should I predict?"

"Hmm," Aeris hummed, "Let's see how compatible Cloud and I are!"

Cait Sith noticed Tifa turning to face the exit.

"Here I go!" he cried, and ordered Mog to perform the fortune telling dance. Mog danced and Cait Sith pulled the fortune from its mouth. He read it silently and turned away. "Uh-oh. This isn't good. I can't say it. Poor Tifa."

"No, no," Aeris whined, "Tell me! I promise I won't get mad."

Cait Sith turned to face her and said (rather quietly) "Looks good. You are perfect for each other." He turned to Cloud, "You are perfect for each other. Aeris' star and Cloud's star, they show a great future! Cloud, I'll be your matchmaker, preacher… I'll do whatever you want me to! You just call me when it all happens."

'_That'll be hard,'_ Aeris thought, _'since we don't know who you are.'_

Cait Sith became somber for a moment, his head dropping down. "Thank you for believing in me," he said, "knowing that I was a spy. This is the final, final farewell."

Mog bounded into the maze and Cait Sith quickly disappeared out of their lives. Aeris called out "Be strong, Cait Sith!" but she doubted he could hear her.

"We should get out of here before the temple begins to collapse," Tifa suggested.

"Tifa's right, Aeris," Cloud held out his hand, "Cait Sith is taking care of it. Besides, who's to say they can't build another one?"

"Would you have him, though?" she asked, fighting the tears in her eyes.

"Hard to say," he tried smiling, "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. It's almost over, let's go."

* * *

Cloud stood at the edge of the moat as the temple shrank and collapsed upon itself – each falling piece seemed to rush inside of itself as it collapsed, like a vacuum was inside of it – the magical power that had controlled the gravity in the maze also served to keep the temple in tact should it turn into the black materia.

It continued to shrink and absorb itself, turning into a definite black colour until the moat was simply the edge of a large pit – something was sparkling in the very bottom centre of it.

Cloud slid down the side of the pit to the bottom. Aeris was close behind him. Cloud picked up the materia – Cait Sith and the temple had collapsed to form the stone. It was as black as night, it almost seemed to blot out colours around it – Cloud's glove looked more grey than brown when he held it.

"As long as we have this," Cloud turned to Aeris, "Sephiroth won't be able to use Meteor."

Something nagged at the back of his brain and he couldn't utter another word without asking Aeris, "Can you use it?"

Aeris smiled and rolled her eyes, "We can't use it right now. You need great spiritual power to use it."

"You mean lots of spirit energy?"

"That's right. One person alone won't do it. Somewhere special, where there is plenty of the Planet's energy."

"The Promised Land that Shinra was always talking about," Cloud concluded, "The one that Sephiroth is looking for. That's why…"

"Sephiroth is not an Ancient," Aeris reminded him, "He shouldn't be able to find the Promised Land."

"Ah, but I have!" boomed the voice of Sephiroth throughout the pit and he appeared in front of Cloud.

Aeris watched as Sephiroth reached his arms out and flew upwards toward the sky - almost in triumph. He began to float back down and Aeris noted that he wasn't carrying any materia. She felt a constant magical tug from him but it was of a different kind than spells. It was an intrusion on the Lifestream, like an aberration of spirit energy that flowed to and through him.

"I'm far superior to the Ancients," he cackled, he spoke to Cloud but his words were as if to answer her, "I became a traveler of the Lifestream and gained the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients, and those who died after the extinction of the Ancients. And soon, I will create the future."

"I won't let you do it!" Aeris cried, "The future is not only yours!"

"Wake up, Cloud," Sephiroth commanded, floating back down in front of him.

Aeris could only look on as Cloud clutched his head with his free hand – the hand with the black materia was shaking.

"Shut up!" Cloud cried. Aeris wasn't sure if he was still speaking to Sephiroth, or there was some sort of intrusion in his mind. She knew the intricacies of him, but she could never understand him in the moment – he was too complicated.

That's why she loved him.

"There, Cloud…" Sephiroth cooed, "Good boy."

Cloud pulsed with the energy that had frightened her in the Golden Hall and he took a reluctant step forward, as if he was fighting himself. His eyes flashed with the same evil that she sensed in Sephiroth. He grunted as he reached out his hand and held out the black materia.

Sephiroth reached out with a tender hand and plucked the black stone from his hand.

"Well done," Sephiroth smiled and rocketed skyward.

Cloud collapsed as Sephiroth's laughter filled the sky – soon he had vanished above the trees.

"Cloud, are you all right?" Aeris asked, leaning in to him. She put a gentle hand on his back.

"I gave the black materia to Sephiroth?" Cloud asked, bewildered, "Why did I do that? What did I do?! Tell me, Aeris!"

"Cloud, be strong, okay?"

"What have I _done_?!" he cried, writhing at the bottom of the pit.

"Cloud, you haven't done anything. It's not your fault." She wasn't even sure if what she was saying was true anymore. It was so hard to believe everything that was happening. It was like she had gone to sleep on the Tiny Bronco and woken up in a surreal world.

It became all the more surreal when Cloud rose to his feet and punched her in the face.

She fell back onto the rocky surface of the pit. She realized that she had left her staff with its materia inside the temple – now encased in the black materia. Cloud collapsed on top of her. He seemed to be unconscious – in a trance almost. He punched her again – the stinging of the physical wound was only the surface of the damage he was causing her.

As he landed blow after blow, she felt her world shatter. Everything that she had loved in the world had been taken away and there was nothing left except the rock wall behind her and Cloud on top, out of control, out of his mind.

She felt her consciousness slipping – but more importantly, she felt the presence of something else. The same unheard voices she felt in the temple. The spirit energy enlightened her, dulled the pain with newfound knowledge.

She was suddenly illuminated with the task at hand. As Tifa reached the bottom of the pit and with a single punch knocked Cloud out, she felt their souls melding together as her physical form faded into nothingness.


	95. Book 4: The Sleeping Forest

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV **

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

**The Sleeping Forest**

Memories fluttered through his brain – fragments of the past swirling, howling in his ears in a terrifying symphony, crying like the Planet. He barely had time to register what his hands were doing to Aeris before he felt a thud to the side of his head.

His memories were falling away like shards of broken stained glass – a church shattering with every hit. The release of the black materia into Sephiroth's hand – the moment their fingers almost touched after five long years. The loss of the five years. The friends and foes and the blurred lines between. Cait Sith sacrificing himself in vain. Cloud himself becoming the villain – attacking Aeris. Tifa fighting against her childhood friend. The party lined up at the edge of the cliff.

The images were warped, distorted. As if he had been dreaming his whole life, and when he opened his eyes he was finally awake.

Only he did not know where he was.

These trees were thin and sparse, at peace. There was no foliage, no jungle to speak of. He was alone, lying flat on his back in the woods.

It was serene here, but bright. Too bright.

"Everything is white," he said, his voice felt like he had never used it before, "What did I do? I don't remember… My memory… since when? If everything is a dream, don't wake me."

"Cloud, can you hear me?"

Aeris' voice. He sat up and looked around. Aeris poked her head around a thin tree. It was too thin to hide her form – a few inches in diameter. But her head was the only thing he could see – the rest was invisible like the staff she used to carry.

"Yeah," he said, "I hear you. Sorry for what happened."

She emerged from behind the tree – the white light faded and he saw the rest of her. She stood in profile, as if she was looking somewhere else. At someone else. And then suddenly he was in front of her again.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled at him.

"…I can't help it…"

"Oh," she said, disappearing behind the tree again.

He didn't see her physically walk to the other side of the forest, but suddenly she appeared there from behind another tree and began to walk back towards him.

"Well then," she said, "Why don't you _really_ worry about it. And let me handle Sephiroth."

She began to giggle, as if what had just transpired hadn't happened. As if they were on their date again, as if nothing in the world was ever wrong. And Cloud couldn't help it; he began to giggle as well.

She hummed as their giggled subsided, "Cloud," she said, walking back behind yet another tree, "You take care of yourself." She disappeared behind it, but leaned backwards out, her head the only visible part of her again, "So you don't have a breakdown, okay?"

Cloud walked after her but he felt gravity had much less effect here. He bounced along gaily, floating through the forest after Aeris. She floated towards him as well and they both stopped in front of each other.

"What is this place?" he asked.

"This forest leads to the City of the Ancients," she spread her arms and smiled broadly, "and it's called the Sleeping Forest." She looked at him almost sombrely, "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor. That's why I'm going to protect it. Only a survivor of the Cetra, like me, can do it."

She began to run off down a dirt path that Cloud hadn't noticed before. It led out of the forest and into pure sunlight – too bright for Cloud to look into without squinting. He feared the light.

"The secret is just up here," she smiled, "at least it should be… I don't know; it feels like I'm being led by something."

Cloud was afraid to follow. Aeris smiled, cocking her head to one side and waving, cutely, femininely, childishly, to Cloud.

"Then, I'll be going now. I'll come back when it's all over."

She disappeared into the light and the words prompted Cloud to run after her.

"Aeris?" he called. No answer.

His legs weren't moving quickly enough, it was as in a horrible nightmare. He ran as fast as he could but covered less than a metre before Sephiroth floated down beside him serenely.

"She's thinking of interfering, eh?" Sephiroth hummed, "We must stop that girl soon."

There was a bright flash and then Cloud was consumed by the darkness.


	96. Book 4: The Journey North

**THE JENOVA PROJECT**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 16**

**The Journey North**

The pain stirred him awake – a large swelling on his left temple from Tifa's bare knuckles. As he adjusted his eyes, he sat up and tried to gauge how long it had been since the Temple of the Ancients. He focused into two figures at the end of the bed.

Tifa and Barret stood with their arms crossed looking at him. Behind them, a wall made of straw. Gongaga.

"You look like you was havin' a nightmare," Barret uncrossed his arms – he had an unwonten look of concern on his face. The face that before he had only shown to Marlene and Tifa. "How are you feeling?"

"I seem to be okay," Cloud replied, checking the room for his equipment. It leaned against a far straw wall.

"That's good. Man, I didn't know what was gonna happen."

"You know, Cloud," Tifa had the same look of worriment on her face, "Aeris is gone."

"Everyone's been out lookin' for Aeris these last few days." Barret sighed, handing him a green flash. He drank and the swelling receded – he shook off the last of the pain as he confirmed his suspicions.

"City of the Ancients," he said after swallowing, "Aeris is headed there."

"By herself?!" Barret cried, "Why did she go by herself?! She needs help."

"Only the Cetra… only Aeris can save us from Meteor…"

"Then we must go," Tifa concluded, "What'll we do if something happens to Aeris? If Sephiroth finds her, she's in trouble."

"Sephiroth already knows where she's going."

"Why are you still sittin' around?"

"Let's go, Cloud."

"…No."

Barret and Tifa stopped and looked at him. He felt the creeping headache coming up again – the episodes that were turning from the harmless internal pain to an external physical possession – as they had done when Cloud held the black materia. He shook it off.

"I might lose it again. If Sephiroth comes near me I might…"

Tifa's worried look increased but Barret became sceptical, "Yeah, goddamnit! It's 'cause of you that Sephiroth got the back materia in the first place. It's your damn fault."

"My fault?"

"I know you got problems… hell, we all do. But, you don't even understand yourself. Right now all of that shit doesn't matter, you gotta understand that there ain't no getting' offa this train we're on, till we get to the end of the line."

"Cloud," Tifa interjected, "we came this far. Aren't you even going to settle up with Sephiroth?"

The headache returned, coaxing Cloud on. "No. I'm afraid. If this keeps up, I may go crazy. I'm afraid."

"Jes' a damn jackass, that's what you are!" Barret walked towards the door of the Gongaga Inn, turning to face him, "Jes' think about it… how many people in this world do ya think really understand themselves? People get depressed in life because they don't know what's up. But they go on living. They don't run away… isn't that how it is?"

Barret was out the door and Tifa began to follow, "Cloud," she said, "You'll come with us, right? I believe in you."

'_What am I supposed to do?'_ he thought, _'Pull out of here? Pull out? To where?'_

* * *

They were barely out of the Inn before Tifa felt like going back. "Cloud…" she started but Barret ushered her out of the Inn.

"Wait a minute, Tifa. Give him a little time. He has to decide this on his own."

* * *

'_I'm afraid to find out the truth? But why?'_

Getting up, his legs felt weak. The potion hadn't worked as well as he had hoped – the injuries he was sustaining recently were more grievous than the usual bullet clip. Fatigue awaited him at every new step he took.

"You awake?" asked the innkeeper, "Those people were so worried that they stayed by your side until you woke up. You sure do have good friends."

"Yeah," he thought about the word, "friends."

* * *

Barret and Tifa were waiting outside for him.

"Hey, how are you?" Barret asked.

"You keep asking me that," he answered, "It's not like you."

"I just wanna know, which is it gonna be? You wanna find out about yourself? Or are you afraid to find out? Either way, you stay around here and about all you can do is worry about it. Even if you do go nuts again when you see Sephiroth… if it happens it happens. I'll go upside your spikey white head and bring you back to normal."

"Cloud, it'll be all right. We're all with you."

"But—"

"If it happens, it happens," Barret repeated, "Don't worry 'bout it."

The more Cloud resisted, the larger the headache grew. "You're… right. He's right, isn't he?"

"I know," Tifa smiled, "Weird, eh?"

"Come on," Barret huffed, "I've already called Cid and he's bringing the Bronco back, we'll meet on the southern coast."

"We'll need a new map," Cloud suggested, "I only have one for the east and west continents, we need a world map. I need to know where the Sleeping Forest is."

"Yeah, crazy ol' doc has a buncha maps by Chiara. I'll pay him a visit, be right back!"

Barret barrelled between huts. Tifa and Cloud looked at one another for a long time.

"It's not like we really needed a map," Cloud sighed, "Considering there are only three continents, the only other choice is…"

* * *

"North?!" Cid cried, "Why in the hell are we going north?"

"Because I said so," Cloud ordered, "So get the Bronco up and moving."

"Do you have any idea what's on the northern continent? A whole lotta nothing!" the Captain whined, "A town built with the skeletons of ancient beasts. Beyond, ruins and monsters as far as the eye can see, the Corral Valley is only the beginning. After that you get to the snowy fields. If you don't die of exposure then you're going to run into some terrible foe that hasn't either! Like some evil snow witch or fate-forbid a Tonberry."

"What's a Tonberry?" asked Barret.

"What's a…? What's a Tonberry?" Cid turned to look at Barret, to see if he was joking. When he saw that he wasn't, Cid continued to tinker with the engine of the Tiny Bronco. "Tonberries are the most dangerous creatures on the Planet. At first they look kinda cute, you know, little kinda lizard guys wearing brown cloaks that waddle around on two feet and hold up little lanterns so they can see in the dark. What you don't see is the knife in the other hand that is so unholy that to touch the blade would kill anyone and anything except, of course, the Tonberry because it is so unholy that it comes from the depths and gloom of the underworld – the world beneath the surface of our Planet – home to the fiercest creatures imaginable. Tonberries, however, rise above them all. They're a goddamn avatar for evil. If we ever encounter one, you can bet your boots I'd be running the other way."

"It says that the Sleeping Forest is right beyond this, uh, Bone Village," Cloud pointed at the map, "That's the forest that Aeris said she'd be going to."

"Right," Cid rolled his eyes, "In this dream that you had."

Cloud nodded.

"Y'ever think that maybe she just went home? Now that fucking Shinra spy is gone, she's gone back to Midgar to rescue mommy? That ever occur to you?"

"We're not playin' 'round, Cid, goddamnit!" Barret fumed, "So jes' re-diddle the damn plane and get us movin'!"

Coming off the wing was Yuffie Kisaragi. She caught Cloud's eye. They looked at each other – shaking hands without moving. Like Cloud had done so many times in battle before. The warriors said nothing to one another, through their eyes they came to an understanding without words. Cloud had heard about what she had done in the temple before the Tiny Bronco had washed ashore (right after a short battle with a gagighandi that Barret had tried to avoid until Cloud had dispatched the creature with one deft stroke). He saw the red materia placed neatly in her shuriken – where once a blue materia allowed her to float without concentrating. Now, it seemed, she was skilled enough with magic not to need it. She was still an asset to the team – Cloud nodded and Yuffie climbed back onto the plane. They had already lost one member of the party in vain; there was no need to throw anyone else away.

* * *

They sailed over the Emerald Sea, after a few days Yuffie found her voice again and used it excessively. To keep their minds off the task at hand (and Cid's terrifying warnings) they all participated in idle chatter – even, on occasion, Vincent.

"I heard some funny Sector 7 jokes when we were looking for her in Costa del Sol," Yuffie started.

"Those jokes ain't funny," Barret huffed.

"You're only saying that because it's too soon after the tragedy. Anything is funny if you give it enough time."

"Yuffie," Tifa said, "We lived in Sector 7. Our friends died protecting it – and we were on the pillar when it exploded. I don't think those jokes will ever be funny to us."

"Hell, they're funny to me!" Cid laughed, "No offence and all, but I think the biggest punch-line is that you were there!"

"Let's change the subject," Vincent said.

"How many Shinra MPs does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" Nanaki asked.

"How many?" Yuffie's eyes widened.

"One," Nanaki answered.

"One?" Yuffie groaned, "That wasn't funny!"

"It's ironic, see, you thought I was going to tell a joke, but instead I didn't – I stated a completely useless fact. The trickery is what makes it funny."

"You think too much about jokes," Yuffie sighed, "dog humour."

"I'm not a dog."

"Cat, whatever."

"Let's make some Wutai jokes!" Barret sneered, "I've heard a lotta those!"

"Let's not, please," Yuffie traced her fingers lazily along the Tiny Bronco's insignia which was now dirty and wiped off in some areas.

"There's the shore," Cid announced, "Prepare for landing."

"All right," Cloud spoke for the first time that day.

Sliding ungracefully along the rocky bottom, the plane came to a halt just above the water level – when Barret jumped down he slipped on the rocks and cut himself. With no one to heal him, he treated his wound "The ol' fashioned way," by spitting on it and continuing as if nothing happened.

It rose out of the trees like four slender white fingers – when they approached the edge of the woods they saw that it was the ribcage of an enormous beast.

Bone Village was aptly named, excavators had dug themselves fossilized fortifications – the town was surrounded by white spires. Numerous excavated relics lay scattered about – there were so many after nearly a millennium of digging that the village didn't know what to do with them all.

The strangest, Cloud observed, was what looked like a helicopter with no propeller – shaped like a neat silver triangle, it was still partially buried. Cloud likened its smoothness to that of the roboguards – it was a man-sized tube with two wings. He was surprised something that modern could be buried so deeply. He wondered if the Cetra had ever used such things.

'_No,'_ he reminded himself, the Cetra were a nomadic race. It must have been a Shinra creation, crashed into the ground many years ago. Or something used by someone else. Jenova, perhaps.

"Welcome to Bone Village," said a foreman covered in dirt, "a town for nature lovers."

"Me and my companions are passing through," Cloud explained, "We're heading for the Sleeping Forest and wondered if you had an Inn here."

"No Inns," laughed the foreman, "cause there ain't no visitors! You're welcome, of course, to stay in one of the tents under supervision."

"Thank you," Cloud replied, proud that he had picked up courtesy along his journey. It opened many doors for him, he found.

They stayed the night in a tent with the soft white noise of hands digging drifting in. It came as a surprise that the inhabitants of Bone Village still dug with their hands and, on occasion, minor tools. They explained altogether that it had been their custom since before cities were cities and they were not going to drop a foolproof formula. Cloud shrugged them off as fools, albeit kind fools at that.

"It's called the Sleeping Forest," the foreman said, "because it's asleep – it has been since the beginning of the village, since the Ancients died out. When it sleeps, nothing may pass. I tried to tell that to the girl who ran through there, but she didn't listen."

"Aeris," Cloud sighed, "I know her; she's the last surviving Ancient."

"Impossible," shook the foreman, "None of them survived, they were all killed by the disaster."

"Let's say for the sake of argument," Tifa posed, "that an Ancient were to walk through the forest. Would the forest wake up?"

"I should hope so," said the foreman, "But if you're thinking of running into there, don't say I didn't warn you."

The moment they stepped into the forest, Cloud recognized the trees from his dream. The dirt path was identical to the vivid pictures in his slumber – so much so that he ruled out the possibility of coincidence and confirmed his suspicions that Aeris had somehow made him see this.

Someone wanted him to follow this path, and he wasn't going to let them down.

After an hour of tranquil trees, Cid commented that the forest did seem to be sleeping – at peace.

"It wouldn't have let us come this far if it was still sleeping," Cloud assured him, "There would be some dangerous guard, like the demon's gate at the temple."

"Unless that only happens when it wakes up," Nanaki posed wryly. Cloud shot him a glance.

"Not helping," Cid twitched his nose.

"We haven't been walking in circles," Vincent announced, "The end of the woods is near – the Corral Valley lies ahead."

He was right; the trees ended at a cliffside and they overlooked the valley.

As soon as their eyes peered into the valley they all immediately assumed that once this place had been underwater. It was a labyrinth of ancient shells as big as buildings – great red and green corral plants grew from the cliffside like trees, interweaving with the shells. More recently, great white trees sprouted up meekly from between shells, each giving off a faint glow – they were almost too white, like the colour of nothing it hurt them to look at it. Cloud headed down the cliffside on a path made of perfectly oval stones – eroded evenly to create a surreal, manmade look to it.

"This can't have been made by nature," Nanaki deducted, "This is too precise, too calculated – too deliberate. Once there was a city here."

"The Cetra were a nomadic race," Cloud reassured them, "They couldn't have built a city."

"They built a temple, didn't they?" Barret asked innocently.

"That was created to protect the black materia so that no one could use it again – if it had ever been used to begin with. Those were the final days of the Cetra – just before they were wiped out."

"Perhaps judgement came to them when they settled here – they went against their natural ways," Vincent scratched his cheek with a bronze claw.

"You're one to poke fun at people going against the natural way," Yuffie laughed.

"Shut up."

"No."

"Vincent," Cloud interrupted their bickering, "The Cetra who settled down eventually became our ancestors. This might have been the very first attempt at a city, now long forgotten."

"There's more than meets the eye here," Nanaki leapt forward, "Come, it's a big valley and we have little time."

"We've doddled enough already," Cloud agreed, "Let's hop to it."

"Hop to it?" Cid laughed as they picked up the pace, "That's not something a leader says. What the hell is wrong with you, Cloud?"

They searched the Corral Valley for the remainder of the day, finding nothing but empty shells.

When night came, Barret suggested they find a suitable shell to take refuge in. Cloud found an appropriate one – large enough to accommodate them all, it wound up in a spiral.

It was dark when they entered and suddenly a light flickered on. Cloud stepped back in alarm.

There was a glowing ember of a sort – hanging from a stalagmite.

"Magical lighting," Vincent sighed, "Impressive. I'm surprised it still works."

"Motion detectors?" Barret sneered, "Don't tell me the Cetra thought of that before the Shinra. Oh this is jes' so damn poetical. An' it doesn't kill the Planet or nothin!"

"There are some furs up here," Tifa called, "I think they've been made into blankets.

"So people have slept here recently," Yuffie crossed her arms, "Who was sleeping here?"

"A party, apparently," Tifa called from further up the spiral shell, "There are twelve furs here. They're all hares though, from the north."

"So someone was questing their way south," Cloud sighed, "Some poor bastards from Icicle Inn probably got lost in the Sleeping Forest. It has nothing to do with us, let's just thank our good fortunes and have a good night's sleep."

"How do you turn these lights off?" Yuffie clapped at the glowing ember, "Do they detect when everyone's sleeping?"

"Let's hope so. Goodnight, until tomorrow."


	97. Book 4: Final Wish

_**Author's Note: **Hey guys! I would really love some feedback on these next two chapters, as it's a really crucial part of the game and I really hope it translates well to text. Anyway, without further ado...**  
**_

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land **

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**Final Wish**

Cloud was stirred by a foreboding. The same sense of magic that he felt when Aeris was near and the same sense of fear and longing when Sephiroth was near. He opened his eyes in the darkness.

A magical ember flickered on in the spiral shell, causing most of the party to stir as well.

"I feel it," Cloud nodded, confirming his suspicions.

"Do you know what _time_ it is?!" Cid cried.

Cloud stood, dropping the hareskin onto the shell floor. "Aeris is here," he announced, and then, after confirming his other feelings, he said, "so is Sephiroth."

Barret leapt from his slumber. Yuffie rubbed her eyes.

"Sephiroth?! He wasn't invited!" she rose from underneath her hareskin and threw on her ornamental sleeve.

"How do you know?" Tifa asked, throwing on her shirt before taking the hareskin off.

"I feel it," Cloud said, surprised that Tifa hadn't caught on by now. He could sense when they were near. He could almost smell Aeris' in the air – hear her voice on the wind.

"Well let's get off our lazy asses an' find her!" came Barret's protestation. Nanaki was already heading out of the shell and Cloud was soon to follow.

The Forgotten City looked much different at night – crisper, as if the darkness gave more accent to the edges of things. The white trees continued to glow unnaturally.

Beyond a large tower of soapstone plates (as wide as Bone Village) there was an unusually large collection of white trees that hadn't made themselves noticeable until the night caused them to glow underneath the moon. It looked like a forest sprouting in the middle of the valley.

"I can almost hear her voice," Cloud hummed to Nanaki as they looked at the forest, "Coming from there."

They were all soon walking underneath the green soapstone structure – there was a neatly cut path that proved Nanaki's assumption that the Corral Valley was indeed manmade – if by strange underwater men or by the deserters of the Cetra.

The path led them under the darkness of the green stones until the light from the trees radiated around and they arrived at a breathtaking clearing.

There was a great pool of water before another shell building – this one winded in and about itself, all alone surrounded by serenely pale branches. White embers like fireflies flickered in and out of the air.

"It's beautiful," Tifa smiled.

"If Aeris was to go anywhere," Nanaki grinned, "This would have to be the place."

Cloud headed into the shell building.

Inside it was another upward spiral but something was different. In the centre, where there should have been solid ground, there was a crystalline staircase leading underground. The crystal was so transparent that only Nanaki noticed it with his sharp eye.

"Those stairs even real?" Barret asked. Cloud tried stepping on one. It was surprisingly sturdy, it held his weight effortlessly despite its frail appeareance.

"These go down," Cloud nodded, "so I guess we do too."

Cloud stepped down to the next stair, still unable to see where he was going. As he continued he heard the clicking of his companion's feet behind him. The safety in numbers that he had never longed for – the companionship that he had shunned – this was how Aeris had changed him. He smiled at the sounds.

And so they descended until the ground opened up and they were in a massive underground settlement.

When Cloud examined the outer walls, he noted that they were more underwater than underground – some magical barrier kept the water from crashing down upon them, it rippled and swayed against an invisible wall. Cloud likened their cavernous dome to an inverted goblet.

"The presence of a Cetra has opened the gates to the lost capital," Vincent said – and his voice echoed shrilly down below them. Cloud's attention was drawn below them.

The crystal stairs continued ahead of him – with no support pillars – they just seemed to exist, perfectly still, mid-air. Far below them, the stairs winded into an elegant crystalline city the likes of which Cloud had never dreamed of. The glow of the trees – already distorted by the water above – shattered into millions of pieces in the city below. It reminded Cloud of fireworks. Beautiful, transitory, the lights moved and frayed. The city was breathing.

"After many years," Vincent continued, "The capital lives again. But for what purpose?"

They arrived at the bottom of the stairs and began to walk around the city – which must have been fabricated by magic – no number of engineers could construct a city such as this. It was the ultimate cusp between the mystic ways of the Ancients and the settled, modern ways of their ancestors.

They arrived at a dock – or what seemed like it. The floor was a pearlescent stone – it rested on an ocean that went down further – down into the blackness. The whole city was imprisoned in a tranquil bubble underneath the sea.

In front of them, (emerging from the deep but only breaking the surface by a metre at most) several wooden posts acted as jumping stones up to a high altar which was separated from the rest of the city. The altar was great and round – some trick of light caused the altar to be illuminated, somehow, more than the rest.

Or perhaps it was the figure in pink that drew all the light towards her, as much as she gave out.

When Cloud saw her he didn't hesitate to leap on top of the first thick post. Barret stepped up to follow him but Cloud turned and motioned for them to stop. He looked at them all, standing on the gorgeous stone. They all nodded – even Tifa – they knew that Cloud and Aeris needed to reunite first.

Cloud continued up the logs until he arrived on the high altar. She kneeled as if in prayer (as he had seen his mother do on occasion).

"Aeris," he called, but her head remained bowed.

It seemed a joyous occasion at first – Cloud stepped towards her, losing control of his body. The joy overwhelmed him – to have found her. His boots made the lightest tapping sound on the marble of the podium. He didn't want to disturb her, so he attempted to stop walking. But it was already too late. Even then it didn't seem like a threat – he continued to walk towards her, his body was following the routine muscle movements that allowed him to move forward.

He stopped three feet away from her, and without asking them to, his arms began to move. He struggled mightily against himself, but his body would not relent. His gloved fingers curled around the hilt of the buster sword and slowly released it from its magnetic sheath. His body was relishing in its power over the mind.

And yet, Aeris kneeled still, not moving. She didn't even seem to notice him at all – either that or she was allowing this to happen. Facilitating it by remaining still, locked in prayer.

The sword came around and suddenly Cloud's hand relented – just for a moment, and the sword tipped to the side before the body could regain its hold on it. Cloud fought desperately for control.

And Aeris remained still, even when Cloud raised the sword with both hands – high above his head.

His mind could feel the muscles clenching, the arms swinging down, the weight of the sword, the adrenaline rush that comes from the kill. None of it was his doing.

"Cloud, stop!" cried Tifa from far behind him.

The familiarity of his name, called by his childhood friend! His body froze still, as if the very blood had stopped moving in his body. He began to feel scorching hot and his eyes came into focus. There was the sword, in perfect stillness as he held it – the blade was centimetres away from Aeris' head. "Cloud, stop!" echoed around the city, bouncing off of towers and the crystalline stairs.

His control was back and he careened his body back. He stumbled backwards, tossing the sword away from him. It clattered along the marble until it was halted by the guard rail.

"What are you making me do?!" he cried.

The corners of her mouth pulled into a serene, closed smile. Her eyes opened slowly and she looked up at Cloud. She didn't say a word. He looked back, expecting an answer. From her, from anyone. His eyes glowed with his passion.

She simply looked at him; she pacified him with her eyes. Their connection calmed him. Her eyes seemed all the greener bathed in the green light.

He was looking so deeply into those eyes that he didn't notice the shadow that flittered through the light in her hair. The dark figure falling through the air, holding the masamune pointed straight downwards.

Cloud barely noticed that there was something above her when suddenly he heard the sound of steel clanging against marble. The tip of the blade dug itself into the floor of the podium. It had sliced so neatly through the flower girl that no blood had been allowed to escape; it was a clean silver blade.

Aeris bobbed her head forward, looking at the tip of the sword protruding from her stomach. Her eyes went wide with shock. She made two weak attempts at breath, and then she stopped breathing altogether.

And then another sound echoed through the halls of the forgotten city. A gentle chime rang out throughout the city – as if to mock Cloud's ears with its delicate ring. Aeris' white materia bounced along the podium as the ribbon in Aeris' hair – shredded by the sword – floated to the ground at Sephiroth's feet.

Sephiroth looked at the ribbon, and he watched the white materia roll off the podium and out of their sight. The faint splash echoed around them as Aeris' signature ornament disappeared underneath the water.

Cloud was frozen in place. He screamed silently at his body to move forward but it would not budge. Aeris' figure slumped forward, her eyes closing slowly. Sephiroth looked at Cloud with triumphant glee, and with a malicious force he tore the masamune back out of Aeris' body, and the blood that sprayed over the floor of the podium prompted Cloud to lunge forward and catch her body before it fell.

She was still – lifeless. Beyond the aid of phoenix down, potion or one of her useful healing spells. By the time Cloud had her cradled in his arms she was already dead.

"Aeris…" he nearly choked on his words. The blood pouring over his gloves stung like it was pouring out of him. He gently shook her, "This can't be real…"

Sephiroth had spread his arms wide and was looking up at the green light, which descended upon him and made his silver hair glow unnaturally, "Do not worry," he cackled, "Soon, the girl will become part of the Planet's energy. All that is left is to go north. The Promised Land awaits me over the snowy fields. There I will become a new being uniting with the Planet – as will this girl—"

"Shut up!" he fumed. "The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing! Aeris is gone! Aeris will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry… or get angry…" He held her body closer, resting his forehead on hers. "What about us? What are _we_ supposed to do?" Trembling now, "What is this pain? My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning."

Sephiroth moved for the first time. He slowly dropped his arms and looked at Cloud quizzically, "What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me that you have feelings too?"

He laid Aeris' body gently on the marble and stood to face him, "Of course! Who do you think I am?"

Sephiroth began to laugh – the unnerving, maniacal laugh that echoed through the crypt in Nibelheim five years ago. Now it echoed around the Forgotten City, "Stop acting as if you were sad. There's no need to act as though you're angry either."

He began to float above the marble, rising further away from them.

"Because, Cloud…" he said, "Because you are…"

Like a rocket he flew up and disappeared into the green light. Cloud stared up after him and was blinded by the light. Something dropped. Something small and lifeless. It hit the podium and exploded into light – fearsome white light that consumed Cloud, made his trembling uncontrollable.

When he came to, there was a massive creature on the podium. Tifa and Barret were flanking him, and Barret handed Cloud his sword. Aeris had been tossed against the guard rail of the podium by one of the monster's tentacles.

It was the same monster that they had encountered on the Shinra boat – a piece of Jenova, transformed into a horrible creature. She loomed above them – a deep bordeaux, the crimson of blood. She didn't attack Cloud – which was fortunate because he was frozen in place. He held his sword weakly. He could see Tifa and Barret rush towards the creature. Tifa grabbed an oncoming tentacle and threw herself at the main body, kicking the slimy red.

Barret fired at the sea of tentacles flying at him. The blood bullets deterred them, but not for long. Cloud watched with glazed eyes. Vincent soared above Jenova, firing several times before landing on the fleshy growth where the head should be. A shuriken flew past Cloud's ear and knocked an oncoming tentacle.

Why wasn't Jenova attacking him? The tentacle reared back, barely missed his head and knocked Yuffie clear off the platform and back on the dock.

He could hear Tifa faintly calling out his name before she was pinned to the ground by several tentacles. Barret had taken a beating. Red XIII latched onto some fleshy bits with his mouth – but the shape-shifter expanded until the beast could no longer hold on without choking. He dropped onto the marble.

He saw through glazed eyes, the sounds were muffled and far away. He didn't want to move. He didn't care. He looked over at the lifeless body of the flower girl, sitting serenely against the guard rail as the battle raged on far away from them.

'_He killed Aeris'_ was all Cloud could think. _'He killed Aeris. He killed Aeris. He killed Aeris!'_

In an instant, he was hurtling himself towards Jenova, the sword high above his head. He had full control of his body now, it was a weapon of his, a channel for his rage. He could feel a magic tug from Yuffie and she used her float spell on him. He jumped higher and higher until he was flying towards her head. He brought his sword down upon her. He embedded the blade from tip to hilt – a four foot slice that followed Cloud all the way back to the ground. Barret shot into the open wound immediately – Jenova reared back in agony.

Cloud felt existence funnelling into the creature as she cast a spell. All the water from above and below them was drawn onto the podium, washing away the blood. They were surrounded in water, it crashed onto them all. Cloud's eyes, which stung now more than ever, looked at his friends. Barret was already struggling to breathe as he waved his limbs about frantically. They were stuck floating.

There was no escape – no way to get out without drowning.

Jenova sat on the podium, sitting on the marble like a stone. Aeris as well, hadn't moved. The water seemed to heal Jenova, her long gash was healing itself. And then Cloud had a plan. He concentrated hard as the red materia in his sword began to glow.

Simultaneously, they faded out of the scene. They were safe in non-existence, watching the world as if on television. Ramuh, the god of thunder, descended from the green light. There was no question from the ancient god of the creature's intentions, no good and evil speeches. Ramuh recognized this evil and all he needed was Cloud's permission to manifest. His long white beard trailed behind him. Raising his staff, he hurled it down into the sphere of water. It pierced through and hit Jenova. Upon impact, it released such an electrical charge that the sphere of water exploded, and Jenova shook with shock. They were teleported back into their plane of existence, now dry and shock free. Ramuh's staff had disappeared with him.

Jenova had lived through the attack and was hurling tentacles at Cloud now. Cid leapt in front of Cloud and quickly sliced off a tentacle with his spear. This gave Cloud another opportunity to do damage.

And did he ever want to do damage!

Relentlessly he swung his sword again and again. He never missed a beat. He was berserk with rage, in a trance almost. Five, ten, fifteen tentacles were on the floor within seconds, disappearing out of Jenova's illusionary state. He reached out his hand when he had a free moment and materialized a magic dagger of ice from his palm – it flew out of his hand and into Jenova as Cloud chopped off another tentacle.

When he reached his destination – Jenova's torso – he didn't hesitate before plunging the blade right where he thought her heart should be. His force was so strong that he pushed the sword and his arms right inside. He screamed with fury as blood showered over him, and he twisted the blade to leave it open. _'He killed Aeris! He killed Aeris! He killed Aeris!' _As he drew the sword back out, the few spots of him that weren't soaked in blood were awash with boiling crimson liquid. Jenova tried to conjure her water spell once more, but she only succeeded in washing her own blood away as she shrunk back into her original form – a tentacle lying on the marble.

Cloud was wet; the blood had washed off of him – and everyone else. Even Aeris' blood was gone from his gloves, and she lay there still by the guard rail.

And then he felt his vision going and all he could see was the blackness.

And then the words returned after an eternity of silence.

He tasted the voice in his head. The voiceless voice that he had never put a name to before, but in this moment it had become suddenly clear who it was.

_**Because**_ Jenova told him, _**you are a puppet.**_

'_I'm… a puppet?'_


	98. Book 4: Dear Friends

_**Author's Note:** Like the last chapter, I'm really intent on making this as perfect as I can get it. Any suggestions or comments are begged for. Thanks for reading, here's Chapter 100 and the end of Disc 1..._**  
**

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

**Dear Friends**

Cloud stood across the altar from her as the party paid their respects. He didn't move, he only stood, half in shock, half in mourning. He stood and watched his best friends say goodbye.

Vincent looked at her body, lying motionless, propped up against the wooden rail of the altar. He walked up to Cloud, the tall man looming over him, casting long moving shadows under the ethereal light of the forgotten city. Cloud looked into Vincent's wine red eyes, and saw, for the first time, compassion. Vincent nodded slowly to Cloud and began down the staircase. He had said his goodbyes internally, and that was all Vincent needed.

Cid was similar, he lit up a cigarette in her honor, the first and last to be smoked in an Ancient city. He nodded his head at her. Atta-girl, thank you... He followed Vincent to the staircase.

Yuffie moved to Aeris and leaned down, staring her in the face, trying to make sure that it wasn't a ruse. When she was convinced, she turned to Cloud and ran up to him. She threw her arms over his shoulders and screamed loudly into his chest. He didn't look at her once, he kept his eyes focused on Aeris. Yuffie's scream died, remaining only in the echoes, which followed Vincent and Cid up the stairs. She stood there, her face pressed against Cloud's, so young and fragile, she was frozen. And then, she removed her face from his chest, and looked up at him. He only looked at Aeris, and Yuffie turned to look one last time at the flower girl before running out of the forgotten city.

Nanaki couldn't force himself to cry. He was too young, too young to be able to cry. He cursed himself for that, for not being able to produce tears, when everyone else could so easily. He could only look forlornly at his fallen companion. Returned to the Lifestream, devoid of all conscious thought for now and ever. Never able to fight with them, or pat him on the nose, or giggle or brighten up everyone's day. She was gone. And he couldn't cry about it. He marched out of the city and howled when he got to the surface. He howled at the moonlight, in mourning, in place of tears.

Tifa knelt down beside Aeris, she kept strong for the moment. Aeris sat, her head bowed, and Tifa slowly took off her gloves. Here lay Aeris, her best friend, her sister, her love. She stroked a single hand through Aeris' familiar bangs, for the last time, she realized. And then the tears came, and Tifa held her body close, still radiating with the heat that Aeris used to have. The energy that the last Ancient carried. And Tifa sobbed onto Aeris' red cropped jacket grabbing her hair and stroking it. She didn't want her to leave, but she was gone. And when Tifa looked into Aeris' face, her eyes serenely closed, her mouth relaxed, at peace, she could not bare to look any more. She couldn't even look at Cloud, who watched her hold Aeris. She held her hand to her mouth, to keep her sobs at bay, and she ran from the altar, down the log steps and up towards Planetside.  
Barret walked up to Cloud and put his large hand on his shoulder. "We don't know when the city'll be submerged again," he said quietly, but his voice echoed off the crystalline buildings. Barret looked over with Cloud at the flower girl, sleeping peacefully. Barret sighed, patted Cloud on the back twice, and continued after the rest.

They stood along the shore of the pond when he emerged, carrying her body gingerly in his arms, her head rolled back, as if to remind them all that it was, in fact, a body they all stared at intently. Cloud took a moment, looking at them against the backdrop of white trees and black bushes, before he waded into the water.

The pool was calm and warm, a perfect burial site. Every step he made created huge ripples that brought the pool to life, and Aeris' long hair trailed in the water, adding smaller, detailed ripples. The water declined rapidly, he found, and it dropped off suddenly before them, the forgotten city forever forgotten, buried underneath the blackness of the pool for the rest of time.

He laid Aeris down in the pool, as her hair, ribbonless, spread in the water like growing roots of a tree. And he planted her there, watching the liquid rise up around her face until he finally gave up, and let his arms go. He slowly backed away as she sank slowly into the pool, until her hands, still folded in prayer, dipped below the surface, and her long slender nose finally submerged. Her hair curled around her, as if wrapping her, to preserve her.

Aeris Gainsborough sank to the watery darkness, and her survivors wept together.

* * *

He kept the lamp on after fatigue had claimed him. To keep warm in the northern cold, or to notify **him** of their whereabouts, he wasn't sure. He didn't really care. He lay in the dark, and the light made his eyelids shine red into his brain until morning. 

It was cold, so cold that Cloud reasoned he would never be warm again.

When his eyes finally did slide open, they had been wet all through the restless night, and the wetness had been used up, they were red and dry, and it pained him to look at the ceiling, the domed roof in that shell of a house.

The lamp, a translucent coral monstrosity with a dying candle within, cast Cloud's feet as enormous, impassable mountains on the far wall of the shell, and when he sat up, his head eclipsed the light, and he was drenched once again in darkness.

And only a few hours ago, she was alive.

The events of the previous night played over and over in his mind, like a horrific broken telly program in constant, instant, replay.

If only he had gotten there sooner, if only he hadn't been so consumed with his love for Aeris, if only he wasn't Sephiroth's plaything. She would still be alive.

The party smelled like dirt and sweat without her.

Tifa sat up, and her face was drenched in tears. She was awake before him, lying with her hands clasped on her chest, weeping softly. Cloud didn't smile at her, like he did most morning. She smiled meekly. He only looked back, his face tired of expression, now a bleak pale visage, lacking personality.

He felt disconnected from humanity. He wondered if he was even human.  
Tifa stood. She recalled sitting, cross legged on the shell floor, sitting and thinking about her. She had fallen asleep before anyone else, she dived into the escape, only to awaken terrifyingly and desolately alone.

Cloud stood from the cot, shirtless and in a cold sweat in the cold morning. Tifa watched him sigh, and followed his breath away from his turned head until it dissipated into the air above a slumbering Barret. Cloud lightly kicked Barret's cot and the giant snorted himself awake. He looked at Tifa, and she couldn't find the strength to smile any more. Her face became a pale visage, and she saw him assimilate to the gloomy morning's mood.

* * *

"Everyone," Cloud said slowly, the first word of the morning. There were six people before him where they had once been eight. They all looked at him, puffy and hopeless, as the realization that they were all going to die settled in on them. Cloud's voice was cracked and ancient, as if he had never used it before, but he found the next word, and the word after that, and continued at a steady pace. 

"I'm Cloud Strife, ex-SOLDIER. Born in Nibelheim. I came to settle up with Sephiroth. I came here by my own free will... or so I thought. However..."

His hand, out of habit now, reached up and wiped the budding tears from his eyes, and he ran his wrist unceremoniously under his nose. The group seemed unwavered by it, and they all stared at his glowing cerulean eyes.

"To tell the truth," he said, "I'm afraid of myself."

Their gazes were friendly, but discerning. Condescending. Cloud felt hot, his eyes burned and his legs willed for him to turn out and walk out of the door, and never to stop until he walked right out of existence. He turned away from their stares, he looked into the lamp's light, hoping for them to blind him, so that he would stop seeing the sword pierce her stomach, again, and again. And it had almost been him.

"There is a part of me that I don't understand... the part of me that made me give the black materia to Sephiroth. If you hadn't stopped me, Aeris might've been..." he cringed at the thought, "...there is someone inside of me. A person who is not really me."

He breathed in. He had been thinking of saying this all morning, and he looked each of his companions in the eye. Vincent Valentine, eyes of red wine, enigmatic. Yuffie, bright and loving, and cunning. Barret, simple, simple Barret, a father and a child. Nanaki, fierce intelligence, and compassion. Cid, whose eyebrows and smirk never masked the warm heart in his shaking, glowing eyes. And Tifa, lovely Tifa, the eternal optimist with eyes constantly on the brim of tears. She smiled, her cheeks tight trying to prevent weeping.

"That's why," he announced, "I should quit this journey. Before I do something terrible."

When he imagined himself saying that this morning, he imagined a wave of relief to wash over him once the words were out. The words were out there, and he would turn and walk away, with nothing left to do but commit suicide on the icy tundra.

But no such relief came, instead, his throat tensed up and he was filled with the most profound anxiety. He found his hands were shaking and curling into fists. He couldn't bare to part, not with his friends, not with the journey. Not with Aeris.

And not with Sephiroth. He had to go. He had to go and see Sephiroth. And kill Sephiroth!

"But I am going!" he declared suddenly, and the relief came, he exhaled slowly, and Tifa's brow knitted. Cloud knew now. He knew why he had to go. "He destroyed my hometown five years ago, killed Aeris, and is now trying to destroy the Planet. I'll never forgive... Sephiroth."

The shaking stopped and he froze, his face frowning, his hands raised in fists. He looked over himself, at his hollow, still tableaux. "I... I must go on," he confirmed, and his hands obeyed his words and lowered slowly to his hips. The party seemed not to notice, and they only looked into his eyes with their love. "I have a favour to ask of you," he said, "Will you come with me?"

Yuffie nodded her head slowly before Cloud could even finish.

"...to save me from doing something terrible."

To save me.

"Well," Cid smiled, "We'll face it when it happens."

Cloud looked at Cid, and he wanted to smile, but his lips wouldn't budge. Every time he tried, the image of Aeris' last smile floated up into his mind, and he lost all hope once more.

"I don't know how Aeris tried to save the Planet from Meteor," he said, "and I guess now, we'll never now. But we still have a chance. We must get that black materia back from Sephiroth before he uses it."

Yes, the black materia was the answer. Cloud could see his hands wrapping around the cancerous orb, as big and perfect round as the Planet itself. Cait Sith had sacrificed himself for that materia. It was rightfully theirs, they deserved to have it. Sephiroth had taken it from them!

"Let's go."


	99. Book 4: Lifestream Eater

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land **

* * *

**Chapter 19**

**Lifestream Eater**

There was no cut path leading north out of the Corral Valley. The valley ended abruptly with a directly vertical cliff as tall as Midgar. The only way up seemed to be a crack in the bedrock – thin enough for Cloud to spread his arms and hold himself between the rock walls. He began to climb.

Nanaki, as usual, found a series of plateaus. Yuffie and Vincent also leapt high into the air and landed on the plateaus above Cloud, who was struggling to climb up the crack. Cid was close behind him, gripping the sides of the crevice with his hands and moving up slowly. Tifa's spiked boot aided her and she helped Barret below her – reaching down with her sinewy arms and helping him when his gun-arm could not grip the stone properly.

They made their way up the cliff - No one said a word, all in quiet reflection. Due to the erratic nature of the rocks – the difficulty of the climb – they spent hours scaling the side.

When they arrived at the top, they found themselves in a mysteriously coloured cave. Spirit energy had stained the rocks in several blues – the mark of mako like in Cloud's eyes.

It was freezing cold here – so much so that Cloud got shrill goose bumps all over his bare arms. Tifa crossed hers in annoyance. Yuffie, who was wearing the least of any of the humans, chattered her teeth before controlling herself.

The cave mouth opened up into the snowy fields – the wind blew snowflakes into the cave and they whirled around Nanaki, whose fur prevented him from feeling the effects of the cold.

"Damn," was all Barret could utter. Cid zipped up his jacket.

Vincent strode out ahead of them into the fields. Cloud followed. Endless snow before them, with only the faintest traces of a white mountain beyond the horizon – faded by the snow in the air.

Cloud looked back at everyone, recognizing that they were not prepared for this weather. That they were not prepared for this journey. There were not prepared like he was, to march out into the whiteness and face his death. He smiled at them, in pity, in longing.

They marched onward until they were knee deep – moving slowly through the snow. Tifa and Yuffie held each other close, A burst of magic fire would occasionally erupt between their feet – warming them for the next few minutes.

Nanaki wasn't visible underneath the snow any longer, only his tail – still alit with the false flame – rose above the snow's surface as he raced ahead, and they followed the tail like bait.

Vincent walked atop the snow as if it were solid ground, never making even a footprint. He walked slowly, leisurely, as if to wait for Barret and Cid, who were falling behind.

When night came, and they could not bare the cold any longer – they dug an area to camp in – a single torch was kept alit as campfire. They warmed themselves in the flame. Nanaki and Tifa alternated sleeping and keeping the fire lit so they would not die of exposure.

'_Die of exposure,'_ Tifa thought, _'A term used to soften the impact of the words "frozen to death." It wouldn't be a bad way to go, I suppose. Just become colder until your nerves can't feel anything anymore, painless, joyless, until you pass out – and die in your sleep. Unlike burning to death. To burn is to feel every molecule in your body expanding, fighting for dominance until you scream your last breath, coughing until you finally die. Neither for me, alas. No, I'm sure I will die from the sword, as did my father, as did my friend – and almost me, too, five years ago. The same sword, how I loathe the blade. Weapons of destruction, Cloud's parade of colourful clowns, all following his great white sword. How I hate it, the sword. The useless blade, smiling from behind Cloud's back as if it is an instrument in good. As if Cloud is an instrument in good. Is he?'_

Tifa heard Yuffie weeping quietly from a corner of the camp. Nanaki awoke and looked at the Wutaian princess.

"Princess Yuffie," Nanaki whispered. Yuffie hopped up, smiling broadly. It seemed too quick, how she had suddenly wiped all trace of sadness from her face and sat up to meet them.

"What do you want, Nananki?" she asked.

"We heard you," Tifa said.

"Mind yer own business," Yuffie stuck out her tongue – again, her reaction was all too quick for Tifa to gauge what she was thinking. Perhaps there was much more to Yuffie than Tifa had thought – the materia that altered her reaction times, was it solely for battle?

"I'll take watch," Nanaki said and Tifa laid down between Barret and Vincent, who sat awake but said nothing, his eyes always watching.

* * *

In the morning, the sky had cleared and they saw a small hamlet wedged between two mountains. Seeing a goal helped with the cold; they raced through the snow at a quicker rate. They passed a family of dire jumping hares – their thick coats of fur allowed them to live in such a wild area. Just beyond them, a wild chocobo pecked at the snow, searching for greens.

Cloud was impressed that such a bird could live in a harsh environment. Had there been more, he would have attempted to catch it and ride it to the village, but he did not want to leave everyone behind.

They reached the hamlet by mid-afternoon. Chiara's map, which was now tog eared and torn from the wind, noted that this place was called Icicle Inn, but there was no sign anywhere in the town – it was simply a small collection of houses, no shops in sight. The only large building was indeed a resort inn that Cloud went to right away.

The resort was for snowboarders – residents of Midgar who could afford helicopter rides to and from the mountain range. Snowboarding tracks went from beginner to the extremely advanced – those wishing to attempt the harder tracks were cautioned: a wrong turn could result in death or an undesired trip into the great glacier. Exactly where Cloud wanted to go.

"Shouldn't we check in?" Barret asked, "Stay the night?"

"No," Cloud said – the first words he had uttered since the Corral Valley, "We're so close, we have just this one chance to catch Sephiroth before he reaches the Promised Land, it should be just past the great glacier. Ten minutes to buy proper clothing and to restock. Nanaki, how are you with the pack?"

"Fine," Nanaki replied, "All that time spent without it has prepared me to use it once more. Fill it to the brim, Cloud."

Tifa and Yuffie bought snowpants and huge jackets, and they wore their regular clothes – battle ready – underneath.

They headed for the nearest snowboarding trail when there was a voice behind them.

"Cloud Strife!" came the shrill ring of a female voice.

Cloud turned around. Coming over a snow dune was Elena of the Turks, flanked by two MP escorts. She caught up to them, slightly out of breath but seemingly unperturbed by the temperature.

"I won't let you go any further," she said.

"Why?" Cloud asked, "We're staying out of your way."

"Nice story," Elena said. There was something very different about her, a darker tone in her voice. It seemed the naïve, almost adorable young Turk had turned into a world-weary old warrior in just a short month. "You've got guts," she said, "doing my boss in like that."

"Tseng?" Cloud asked, "That wasn't us, Sephiroth did it."

"No!" Elena said, knowing that Tseng was killed by a long blade. When she had found the body at the top of the temple, she dragged him out to the helicopter – but it was too late. She assumed that the lacerations across his body had come from the buster sword. She had never even thought of Sephiroth. A hint of doubt entered her voice as she sneered at him, "You think you can fool me? You're a liar!"

"I'm not lying," Cloud shrugged, but his energy was spent. He had no patience for this, "It was Sephiroth."

"Looks like talking alone won't cut it," Elena growled, "You're going to have to feel some pain."

Right before Elena raised her hand, Cloud suddenly remembered Aeris' eyes, how they welled with tears as Tseng slipped from life. And how when she said in the temple that Sephiroth had never wronged her – how she lied. Tseng deserved to be avenged, how his necessity betrayed his honour, how he was pulled so quickly from a life not yet complete. And how of all things to pay for, Sephiroth didn't deserve retribution for one lousy kill.

So Cloud took the hit for Sephiroth. Elena's closed fist hit Cloud clear in the face and in one clean stroke knocked him unconscious. He fell back into the snow.

"I hope you're happy with yourself," Tifa shook her head. Elena stood over Cloud's body.

"Why didn't he even try to duck?" Elena asked.

"Because he's a good guy," Yuffie said, "like it or not."

"Sephiroth killed Tseng," Tifa confirmed, "So I suggest your time might be better spent chasing him, since he is trying to end the world."

Elena stammered, "This town is under Shinra control, no one is allowed to enter or exit without permission from me."

"Okay, you go do that," Cid lit up a cigarette, "Someone help me get Cloud inside before he dies out here."

They moved into the nearest house – it was abandoned. They laid Cloud down on the bed downstairs and sat on the floor upstairs. It was nearly an hour before he regained consciousness and came up the stairs.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You took Elena's punch," Cid laughed, "Looks like she has a pretty powerful one, too. I was beginning to think nothing could knock you out."

"Why did ya do it?" Barret asked.

"Sephiroth deserves to die for a lot of things," Cloud said, "I just want to make sure that everyone gets their little piece of revenge. Because I'm killing Sephiroth, and it's not to avenge Tseng."

"That was almost sweet," Yuffie smirked, "In a stupid way."

It was the first time anyone had sincerely smiled since landing on the Northern Continent. Soon, they felt guilty for relishing in the moment, and the past and future wiped the smiles from their faces.

"This is strange," Vincent said, "This is a laboratory of some sort, but there are no papers and files anywhere."

"What's worse," Barret commented, "There're bullet holes all over the floor."

"This video camera has been shot as well," Tifa examined a camera at the far point of the room.

"There's no time to look at this stuff," Cloud pleaded, "We have to go."

"Get your strength back," Nanaki said, "The Shinra logo is on that desk."

Cloud looked at the desk, were Vincent was sorting through a small pile of video cassettes. "What's this?" Vincent asked. Cloud walked up beside him and looked at the tapes in his hands. They were labelled "The Original Crisis," and "Weapon."

"The original crisis, huh?" Cloud hummed, "Put that in."

Vincent slid the black tape into a television and the screen flickered to life. On the screen, it showed the very room they were in now – more furnished and there was research everywhere. The film had obviously been recorded from the camera that Tifa was attempting to pry open.

In the room, a scientist moved from behind the camera and paced back and forth in a long white lab coat. His demeanour reminded Cloud of Hojo, although he was handsome and young. There was a beautiful woman in the room with him – with long auburn hair and a red cropped jacket that was eerily familiar.

"Camera is ready. Now, Ifalna," the scientist asked, "Please tell us about the Cetra."

Ifalna looked at the scientist and prepared herself for a speech, "Two thousand years ago," she began, "my ancestors, the Cetra, heard cries of the Planet. The first ones to discover the Planet's wound were the Cetra in Knowlespole."

"Knowlespole?"

"That name refers to this land," Ifalna explained, "The Cetra then began a Planet-reading."

"What is a Planet-reading?"

"I can't explain it very well, it's not really tangible. What I can liken it to is a conversation with the Planet. It didn't tell them, but it revealed to them that something had fallen from the sky and collided with the Planet, causing a large wound. Thousands of Cetra got together and tried to heal it, but to no avail. Due to the severity of the wound, the only thing that the Planet could do was heal itself by gathering spirit energy – but there was never enough and the wound still remains."

"And the wound is now a gathering place for spirit energy?"

"Do the Ancients – sorry, the Cetra have special powers to heal the Planet?"

"No, it's not that kind of power," Ifalna shook her head, "The life force of all living things on this Planet becomes the power. The Cetra tried desperately to cultivate the surrounding land as to not diminish the energy – they tried to keep a balance so that the Planet didn't destroy itself trying to heal the wound. But all the energy was being taken away to heal the wound. It began to diminish the land around here."

"Is that why the snow never melts here?" the scientist asked, "Because the Planet is gathering spirit energy to heal the wound? Even today?"

"Yes," Ifalna agreed, near tears.

"Let's take a break."

"No, no, I'm all right. When the Cetra were preparing to part with the land they loved… that's when it appeared. It looked like… our dead mothers and our dead brothers. Showing us spectres of the past."

"Who is the person who appeared in the Northern Crater?" the scientist asked.

"The one who injured the Planet in the first place. The 'calamity from the skies' as we called him. He first approached them as a friend – deceived them, and then, he gave them the virus. The Cetra lost themselves in the virus, they turned into monsters. They killed each other and their spirit energy went into the Lifestream. Meanwhile, he was at the centre of the wound – absorbing it. Becoming greater as the Planet still struggled to heal itself." She fell to her knees, weak, "After he infected everyone in Knowlespole, he moved on to find other Cetra clans who were still wandering, still cultivating the land and moving on. He infected them too. The Lifestream eater."

"You don't look well," the scientist said, "Let's call it a day."

The tape ended.

Without speaking, Cloud put in the next tape, entitled "Weapon."

Again the screen flickered to life, and Ifalna sat on a chair as the scientist came from behind the camera and sat across from her. They smiled at one another.

"Now, Ifalna," he said, "What can you tell me about Weapon?"

"Of course, professor. The one you mistook for a Cetra was named Jenova. That is the calamity from the skies that we talked about earlier. The Planet knew it had to destroy the calamity from the skies – as long as Jenova exists, the Planet can never fully heal itself. It will continue to eat the Lifestream until there is none left – and then it will move on."

"So the Planet produced Weapon of its own will?"

"Yes, organic sentient born of the Planet's will to combat Jenova and any other threats to the Lifestream."

"But there is no record of Weapon ever being used."

"A small number of the surviving Cetra defeated Jenova and confined it. The Planet produced Weapon but it was no longer necessary to use it."

"But they didn't kill Jenova."

"Jenova cannot be killed," Ifalna said, "Even if you split her into a million pieces, those pieces will find their way back into a whole. Isn't that what you and Professor Hojo were studying?"

"We'll get to that later," the scientist sighed, "So Weapon no longer exists on the Planet?"

"Weapon cannot vanish – it remains asleep on the Planet somewhere. Even though Jenova is confined, it could come back to life at some time. The Planet has still not fully healed itself; it is recovering from Jenova's actions. When Jenova comes back so will Weapon."

"Where is Weapon?"

Ifalna laughed, "As if I'd know!"

There was a cheery disposition in her voice that was genetic, and it tugged at Cloud's heartstrings.

"No," Ifalna said, her words filling Cloud with nostalgia, "I can't hear the Planet here; the spirit energy is so low. It's too weak to tell me anything. I don't think I'll ever be able to hear it clearly enough to do anything about it. Besides, what would it tell me? If an atom of your muscle tissue asked you where one of your scabs was, would you tell it?"

"Is that what we are to the Planet? Cells in the bigger entity?"

"It's similar," Ifalna smiled, "But then again, the Planet is only a cell in the great being that is the universe. Jenova is the parasite eating these cells; it needs to destroy in order to survive."

"And Weapon is what, the universe's antibodies?"

Ifalna laughed, "Bingo."

There was chemistry between the two, it was painfully apparent. To everyone else, it looked like the interactions between Cloud and Aeris. Cloud kept quiet as the tape ended. There was another cassette labelled "10th Day After Birth."

Putting it in, the screen flickered once again to life. It was a shot of the scientist's tie as he was bent over the camera. Ifalna's voice was heard behind him.

"What are you doing, honey?"

"I'm thinking of taping it on video," said the scientist, "But the camera isn't working right."

"What are you going to tape? Is there something I haven't mentioned?"

"No, I'm going to record my beautiful daughter. When she's sleeping, her face looks like an angel."

"First, dear, we have to figure out her name. We can take the video later."

"It's a girl, isn't it?" he replied, "I thought we were going to name her Aeris."

"Oh you're so selfish!" she laughed, "But Aeris is a good name, I'm surprised you remembered out of that forgetful head of yours. Maybe you should try and stop recording before you fix the camera."

"Oh right! Thank you, darling."

The tape ended and Tifa pried open the camera, grabbing the last video cassette from its innards. This one had no label. The group was silent as Tifa moved towards the television and placed it inside.

On the video, the film was grainy. Ifalna held the infant in her arms, and Yuffie sniffled immediately.

"Video again?" Ifalna rolled her eyes, "You just got through taping."

"Oh don't say it that way," the scientist moved towards her and kissed her on the cheek. "It's our child, both yours and mine. Don't you want to capture her childhood on videotape?"

"I don't see why she can't just live forever in our memories."

"Because we won't live forever," he called back, he was already back at his desk rummaging through files.

"If you keep doting on her like that, she won't grow up to be big and strong," Ifalna smiled and turned to face him. The baby reached up and touched her mother's face gently, her chubby hands tickling her chin, Ifalna turned and cooed at her baby. "Aeris is different from the other children. I wonder what dangers await her?"

"Never say that!" Aeris' father said, coming back, "I will protect you and Aeris no matter what. We're all the way out here, are we not? You and Aeris are my only treasures; I will never let you go."

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. The scientist grunted and turned to open the door. As he reached for the handle the door was knocked from its hinges, knocking the scientist back. Ifalna turned, screaming towards the door as the professor careened back until he regained his balance.

Two Shinra MPs ran in, cocking their guns at him. Following them was a middle aged man in a white lab coat, with comical earmuffs. The film was over twenty years old now, but there was no mistaking the evil that seeped from the new scientist. The way his shoulders were already beginning to hunch over. The sinister round silver spectacles.

"I've been looking all over for you two," Hojo joked, as if this was to be a merry occasion. "Long time no see, Professor Gast."

"Hojo, how did you—?"

"Oh believe me; I had to turn over a stone or two to find you. Two years I waited for this new sample."

"New sample? You don't mean Aeris!"

"Please, Hojo," Ifalna put the child down, "All you want is me, right? Take me, but Aeris has nothing to do with this."

"Nonsense," Hojo smiled, "I need both of you for my experiment."

Gast grabbed Hojo by his lapel and pulled him close. The MPs were quick to train their guns on him.

"Mistake," Hojo laughed, "Kill him."

Without hesitation, the MPs fired and Gast fell backwards, shaking with the impact from the bullets. He fell to the ground. Ifalna screamed and baby Aeris began to cry.

"Shut the baby up, and shoot the camera."

One of the MPs turned to the camera and fired. The screen was filled with snow.

They watched the snow for a long time in silence. After a minute, Vincent said – muffled from underneath the collar of his cape, "Hojo must die."

He walked out of the house and back into the snow. Cloud reached a hand up to turn off the television, but waited just a moment longer – waiting for another second of film to emerge, some shred of hope that they had escaped, but he knew that they wouldn't. He knew everything that happened next, so he pushed the button that turned the snow off (with the sound of static popping for a second afterwards). Silence filled the room once more.


	100. Book 4: Buried in the Snow

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 20**

**Buried in the Snow**

"You there," Elena marched through the snow. She wasn't dressed for these conditions, and was suffering accordingly. Her feet were wet and freezing, but she continued to trudge through the new snow that had fallen in the last hour. She was a Turk, and no frostbit ankle would squelch her spirits.

The woman in question at whom Elena was barking was another settler of Icicle Inn – as the town was named after the resort. Elena mused that the low temperature put a damper on their creativity concerning names. The woman stood at the edge of a drop – the snow wasn't obstructing the view and Elena could see the Great Glacier of the Planet at the bottom of the mountain, stretching out long and flat – farther than the eye could see.

"You're out of city bounds," Elena stood her ground a few metres behind the woman. The crone turned and met the Turk with her withering face bundled underneath a fur hood. She did not respond.

"We've sanctioned the town, no one is to leave or enter until the president orders otherwise."

"I see."

"Well… would you please go back to town?"

"I'm going no further, but I would like to wait here for a while if it's okay with you. I don't mind company."

Elena stood – unsure of what to do or say. "A-allright, you get five minutes. Under supervision."

The woman turned back towards the drop, staring out at the point where the white clouds met the white icy land. Elena stood beside her. After all, she was a citizen, she had committed no crime to speak of, and was of no need to the Turks. Model citizens should be rewarded.

"I come here once a day," the crone said, "One good long look is all I need. If I could see him, I would know that he would be back by the end of the day."

"Who?"

"My husband Holzoff. He went out into the Great Glacier twenty years ago and never came back."

"And you wait for him every day?"

"He's too hardy to die out there."

Elena thought differently, but before she could communicate her opinion, something hard struck her in the back of the shoulder and she fell forward, watching her own blood splatter across the snow.

"That's for hurting Cloud!" Yuffie cried, retrieving her shuriken from the place where it had stabbed into Elena's back. The young girl stood on the Turk's back triumphantly.

The crone wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Consider Icicle Inn liberated," Cloud said, looking down the cliff. "Take Elena to an Inn and clean her up once we're far enough gone for her not to follow."

The crone took a moment before she realized he was talking to her. "Be careful out there. There's rumours of a witch who eats travellers."

"I've dealt with worse," Cloud smiled, "I used to be in SOLDIER."

The crone didn't seem to feel one way or the other about that information, but as soon as he said it Cloud was running down into the endless snowfield.

They descended quickly down the mountain side – on the north side of Icicle Inn, the land slipped down quickly – there were tracks in the fresh snow from yesterday, even so late in the year, avid snowboarders were trying their hand at the steep mountainside. Cloud wasn't certain what day it was anymore, or what month it was. Spring was near, he knew that much. Spring was coming and she was gone.

They ran so fast that on occasion they would slip on the ice that made up the foundation of the mountainside – they would tumble ahead until they stopped, and then continue on.

The mountain was not kind to them – as they deterred from the snowboarding tracks towards the great glacier, the drops became more severe, ranging from a metre to ten metres. Altogether, AVALANCHE roared down the cliffside, although no one had the heart to make any jokes about it.

The one with the least troubles was Vincent, who gently floated down the cliffside, barely stepping on the snow every few metres down. Even with his immaculate control over his own weight and gravitational properties, the wind blew him about on occasion and he would slip and fall – the snow sticking to his cape as he rolled down the mountainside.

They all felt the cold on their cheeks – even Tifa and Yuffie who were bundled more than the rest felt as if there were nails stabbing through their noses – everyone's faces were flushed.

As the decline became all the more steep, their falls became more frequent until they found themselves simply rolling down the mountainside. It was Vincent who saw the mountain curve down into oblivion ahead of him but it was too late, Cloud and Tifa were already rolling too fast to be stopped – and they rolled off down into the mist. Everyone followed suite, plunging down into the darkness. Vincent slowed his descent as he fell gently into the fog.

* * *

The wind was what stirred Cloud awake. He was half buried in snow, a little shaken, but alive. He managed to stand up.

"Are we all in one piece," he asked. Other than Cid's broken leg everyone seemed well enough not to require medical attention. After complaining, they straightened Cid's leg out and gave him potions until he was able to stand. He still limped for the next hour as they walked ahead.

They were in the glacier now, there was no denying it. There was no turning back – the mountain was too steep to hope to climb without rope, and it was slowly dawning on Cloud that perhaps they were grossly under-equipped for this journey. They were armed with their weapons, fur and a pack full of potions. Cloud's boots were worn since his last visit to the Great Glacier – he remembered it as one of his first missions. They had been properly equipped, and didn't venture nearly as far into the unknown as they were about to trek. A simple seek and destroy mission for attacking hares in the Icicle Inn area. They had been hailed as heroes, Cloud and Sephiroth.

And now? Cloud was a forgotten footnote on Sephiroth's impressive resume – which now included torching Nibelheim, the Shinra Massacre, and the murder of the last Cetra.

Without saying a word, he walked into the endless white.

Walking was easier than he expected – the ground was solid ice, but his boots stuck fast to it. They all were somewhat relieved at how speedily they left the base of the mountain and were soon in the middle of an endless flat terrain. At this rate, surely they would reach Sephiroth by the end of the day.

Cloud was almost hopeful when the winds started. Without the mountains to soften it, it came swiftly and bitingly. Within seconds, they were blinded by the frozen air stabbing into their eyes. Cloud managed to shake it off, but when he turned at the others, he found that they were disoriented, many of them walking in the wrong direction.

By the time he called them back to his position, he wasn't sure he remembered which direction was the right one. Barret expressed his lack of faith in Cloud's leadership – this came as no surprise. Nanaki moved outside the group and attempted to smell the fires of Icicle Inn, or some strange new scent that could lead them forward, but his senses were dulled by the cold and they were too far in the middle of nowhere.

As Vincent took off his cape to wrap around a shivering Yuffie, Cloud deliberated on the wisest decision.

"Cloud! We're not gettin' our asses anywhere arguing like this!"

"I think I see something," Nanaki said. "There's a rock formation just yonder."

"Great!" Barret finished, and nearly burst through the circle trying to get through.

Nanaki led the way and they followed the bobbing tail of flame. After half a kilometre, they too could see a near cylindrical rock structure in the distance – as tall as a building.

Another strong gale blasted across their faces, and Cloud could feel drops of blood ebbing between layers of skin from the microscopic punctures in his face. The party was stopped in its tracks. They once again needed a moment to collect themselves before heading towards the cylindrical structure just down the way.

There was an opening in the rock face a few metres up – an easy climb over some boulders to reach the inside.

It was warm inside, and Yuffie returned Vincent's cape to him. He insisted that the cold didn't bother him, but he took the cape back anyway.

"Tifa, give us light," Cloud ordered.

A small ball of flame appeared in Tifa's outstretched palm. She moved along the edges of the room. Rock walls, and a corridor leading into more darkness.

Pollensalta, the creature that lived within the darkness, had already spotted the party, but for the moment remained hidden.

"We wait here until the wind slows," Cloud announced. "Then we can determine which direction it's coming from."

"Fat lotta good that'll do," Barret coughed. "There ain't no mountains for leagues, the wind'll come from all directions."

Cid lit up a match, the flame was trifling. He managed to light a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "It seems to me that the air is still fogged by the cold. Maybe in a while it'll clear up and we'll see something."

"Maybe," Tifa concurred.

There was a clicking noise from within the corridor.

"I smell something," Nanaki hissed. "It's foul."

Cloud unclipped the Buster Sword and held it at his side for precaution. "That could take days, and even if it was safe to linger, Sephiroth could summon Meteor at any moment."

"I think I see something," Nanaki began to move into the darknened corridor.

"Nanaki, wait!" Tifa called.

The beast stopped, but it didn't seem as though he was heeding Tifa's warning. He slowly turned to face the party, and right away they could tell that something was wrong.

Nanaki's remaining eye was glossed over, the colour faded to a dull white.

"Nanaki?" Tifa asked.

The beast roared ferociously and pounced on an unsuspecting Tifa. Cloud, on pure impulse, flicked his sword before he had a chance to react properly. He strained and managed to stop the swinging blade before it slit Nanaki's throat. It was centimetres away.

The beast clawed at Tifa. The woman threw the ball of fire at the beast and it smashed the side of his head. Before the flames extinguished, drowning them in darkness, Cloud tilted his sword and broadsided Nanaki's midsection. As the light went out, Cloud could feel Nanaki being thrown off Tifa by the sword.

They were in darkness now, the only light seeping in was the dim blue glow from the cavemouth. There was a lot of shuffling in the dark – and Cloud could feel himself becoming slightly disoriented. Not just in the fact that it was dark, but he suddenly felt as if there was something muddling his senses – he felt someone beside him, around him, inside him. Something terrible and hostile.

He swung his blade at the darkness – and he hit something! He couldn't see it, he needed to see it. Tifa and Nanaki were down. There was no way to conjure fire. How could he know if he had hit the enemy or his friends? Surely it was the enemy, he could feel an evil energy all around him. He was surrounded.

He turned around, striking at everything he could. Once he hit the rock wall but he could have sworn he heard an evil squeal and the bursting of flesh.

Tifa's hand finally came alit and Cloud looked around.

He was surrounded by men in black cloaks.

This was it.

He raised his sword into the air.

He cried.

One of the men in black cloaks raised his hand.

There was a popping noise from inside the cloak. Little flashes of light like fireworks going off inside the hand.

Something struck his head. His face was suddenly aflurry with pain. He dropped the sword in his agony and fell back against the wall.

He lunged for the sword when one of the men stepped on it. Except, it wasn't a man in a black cloak at all!

It was Barret.

"Get a fuckin' grip on yourself!" he aimed his gun-arm again.

"Wait! No!" Cloud said, "What the hell is happening?"

"He's snapped out of it!" Nanaki said.

Cloud looked around – they were alone in the dimly lit room. He wasn't surrounded by enemies but allies. All was still and quiet.

Vincent lay in a bloody heap on the floor.

"Vincent!" Tifa ran to him and put her hands upon him. It was clear he had been cut by the sword.

"I didn't… I thought…"

"It's okay," Nanaki assured Cloud, "Something in here is using a confusion spell to get us to attack one another. It's too cowardly to fight us itself."

It seemed as though Nanaki was trying to coax the enemy out. Cloud ran up to him and opened the pack, grabbing potions from within. He moved to Vincent.

"Roll him over," he ordered Tifa, and she acquiesced.

Vincent had a thin line of blood escaping his mouth – the wound in his side was significant. "Tis not as bad as it looks," he drank the potions, "Elsewise I might have transformed – _then_ things would have become interesting indeed."

"Keep your wits about you!" Yuffie suddenly shouted, "It could be a trick!"

"What could be a –" before Cloud could finish, Yuffie began screaming and backing up against the wall, her eyes the same glossy white that Nanaki's had been.

"Yuffie, wait! How do you stop this?" he asked. Yuffie's yellow materia began to glow and she suddenly moved impossibly fast around the back of Cloud, and with a clean punch knocked him on the ground.

"Stop her!"

Nanaki moved towards her, but it only seemed to aggravate her. With her deft artistic ability with the Time spell she had learned from Jenova, she was suddenly able to make twice and slowly for Nanaki and twice as quickly for her. Nanaki was painfully slow and she painfully fast. With three strong slices with the shuriken, Nanaki collapsed on the ground.

There was a loud bang and a flash of light – Yuffie was slammed into the wall and blood spots stained the rock.

Vincent held the gun weakly from his position on the floor – his aim had been true. The bullet had passed right through the skin of her cheeks – had her mouth been closed she would have lost a few teeth. She held her face for a moment, startled, and then turned to look at them.

"Oh! Oh I'm sorry!"

She moved quickly to Nanaki and gave them each a potion.

"We can't just wait around all day until we're out of potions!" Cid said, "Let's count our losses and get the fuck out of here!"

"Duly noted!" Cloud nodded, "All right, everyone, let's hustle!"

There came a scream from the darkness of the corridor – an incensed, dangerous moaning sound. Tifa's flame burned brighter than before – it was clear Nanaki was helping her illuminate the room.

From around the corner jumped an ancient looking woman. Her hair was so thin that one wondered why she left the scant patches there at all, they only served to accent the balding underneath. Her mouth was in a frightfully contorted "O" shape.

"No one escapes the winter witch!" she howled.

Her wrinkled, outstretched hands exploded with light and Cloud heard Yuffie cry "Slow!" behind him.

Time slowed down. Cloud's mind raced as his lungs weren't inhaling quickly enough – his pulse wasn't quickening to suit his sudden panic. He saw the harridan before him, an ice spell exploding from her palms – a long, thick spear of frozen water aimed at him. It soared through the air slowly towards him. He made the movement to duck, but he was moving too slowly.

Yuffie walked between the spear of ice and Cloud. She was moving at a normal rate – but everything else was quite slow. Nimbly plucking the spear of ice from its trajectory, she tilted it off course and turned to the winter witch.

Cloud looked at the wrinkled, outstretched palm and noticed a tattooed rune upon the skin.

"Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine!" Yuffie smiled. Her yellow materia – which was still glowing from the time spell, illuminated a little brighter as Yuffie used the witch's spell against her. "Confuse!"

Cloud saw the pupils of the witch fade to white as time resumed normalcy. The ice spear flew upwards and smashed against the ceiling.

The witch stumbled back against the wall, her face dull and expressionless.

They acted quickly. Cloud lunged forward and pinned her arms to the wall. The witch – still muddled, bobbed her head in an approving way. It was only when they slammed her down on the rock floor that she was roused from the spell and commenced screaming wildly.

Nanaki stood on top of her, his claws digging into her hands. Cloud retrieved his sword and held it to her head as Yuffie relieved her of her materia – of which there was plenty inside her coat.

"Now you answer our questions. Are there any more of you?"

"More? More?! Gods no, no more. Just little old me waiting for the next meal to drop by."

"Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"I'm nothing but an old biddy, a corpse of what was, Pollensalta! Pollensalta was my name and I came from a civilized world, only it wasn't so civilized, couldn't bare a woman who could use magic, couldn't bear a woman who lived till one hundred and three and then stopped aging, no!"

"She's an Orunai," Yuffie said.

"She's a fuckin' nutcase, that's what," Cid shook his head. "And a cannibal. Cloud, why are we wasting our time now?"

"That rune on your arm," Cloud looked down on the witch, "What does it mean?"

"Forgot what's there, can't see my hand, no. Get your big cat off me and I'll look for you."

"This could be a trick," Nanaki advised.

"It looks like this," Cloud touched the rock floor with the tip of the Buster Sword and with seven swooping motions, he fashioned the symbol of the Lifestream.

"That? It's a magic symbol! It means great energy, great calamity, catastrophe! It will be branded upon the angel of death when he comes to end the world. It will be branded upon those who oppose him. Balance! The eternal ebb and flow of our planet's blood."

She struggled underneath Nanaki. The beast looked at Cloud. "I've been observing your interest in this symbol since you saw it on Grandpa's machine."

"It was on the church in Virennion, on a mural that showed the end of the world. It was also branded upon what Aeris called an angel in the temple of the Ancients."

"What's an angel?" Barret asked.

"Only doom!" cried Pollensalta, "An angel with a missing wing will claim the Lifestream for his own, it has happened before, and I bore witness to it at the birth of mankind!"

"You're not that old!" Cloud lost his temper and slammed the sword upon the rock. "Your kind only live twice as long as us."

"You don't know my kind. Lifespan is measured by closeness to the planet's blood! Those closest to the Planet may live in the thousands, as the Cetra did before they were murdered."

"Murdered?"

"All of them save the last, Ifalna!"

"You knew Ifalna?"

"She was taken away from the village yonder! She has returned to the Planet, which leaves me as the oldest being on the face of this world besides **him**."

There was a weight in the way she said it that made Cloud cringe. She continued.

"When he came he appeared as those who chose to return to the Planet, and the Cetra in their arrogance welcomed him into their open arms and from there they were branded as part of the monster, and those who opposed it. When the one-winged rose from the cocoon, they sealed him away and buried him. Their numbers dwindled until only us humans were left! And I, cursed to stop aging at one hundred and three, branded as one of the Cetra, the Cetra who maimed and murdered each other – poisoned by the evils of the calamity from the skies. Outcast! The blaspheme! The only human to know magic and immortality. Woe! Woe!"

"She ain't makin' sense no more, Cloud, jes' finish her off."

"The symbol, it represents balance and nature," Nanaki said. "That's all."

"I would kill you," Cloud said, "But you're the first Orunai. Let's see how long you may live. Who knows, maybe one of us will become an Orunai one day."

Yuffie's ears perked up at this.

Cloud raised the blade to Pollensalta's face once more. "Everyone out of the cave – yes, Yuffie, you can keep the materia. But leave her a single fire stone; she needs to cook with something. Tifa, be ready to torch her if she tries to kill me. All right, look sharp."

They exited the cave mouth – Nanaki was the last to go, leaping off of her and bounding out of the exit.

"Leave me," Pollensalta said.

* * *

Cloud walked out into the bitingly cold air. The skies were ready to start snowing on them, but the sky was clear for a moment.

"Look!" Cid called, "What's that?"

Cloud could see it too, it was almost like someone had drawn a thin line in the sky – an almost perfect horizontal line streaming across the air.

"What _is_that?" Yuffie asked, still holding the wound in her cheek.

Vincent finished the last of his potion. "It appears to be the top of a cliff."

"That's impossible," Cloud said, "No cliff in the world is that high – from this distance, it would have to be five times the height of Midgar."

"It certainly looks like the top of a cliff," Nanaki nodded.

"We can't stay here, anyway," Cloud nodded, "Might as well give it a shot."

They continued away from Pollensalta's cylindrical lair and back into the flat icy lands. As the sky became fogged, and snow gathered on the bottom of the clouds just waiting to fall on them, Cloud was now sure that Vincent and Nanaki were right. It was a cliff. He picked up his pace as the first flake of snow became tangled in his yellow hair.

"Cloud, not so fast," Tifa called. "We're still recovering from battle. Give Yuffie and Vincent some recuperation time."

"Let's head on," Cloud moved ahead, tired of waiting for them, "It's not much farther from here."

Snow battered at his eyes as be paraded on. At his feet, the snow acted like sand on a metallic floor – it only served to throw him off balance.

"Cloud, wait!" Barret called from behind him. His protestations were lost in the wind. If they couldn't keep up, what chance did they have against Sephiroth? The wind was strong on his face but he continued on. If there was anything Cloud could say about himself, it would be his perseverance. How he had endured such flame, such anguish. And now was the time to settle the score.

Just beyond that snow field.

Just beyond that huge cliff in the distance, the cliff that rose nice and round from the horizon, as if it was a gateway that spanned the length of the Planet.

That's where he was.

Sephiroth.

Sephiroth.

Cloud could feel his muscles disobey him and his leg buckled from underneath him. As he fell, he relished in the moment of relaxation – and let sleep take him. Just a short nap. A short nap and then continue on to kill. To kill.

* * *

They found him face down on an everlasting field of ice. He had raced ahead and disappeared from their sight, and the wind had blown them in all matter of directions, but eventually they came upon his body.

"Is he dead?" Yuffie asked.

"It's hard to say," Tifa knelt over him, "Oh Cloud, you stupid ass! Why did you have to go it alone? Nanaki, give me fire!"

Nanaki closed his eyes and a weak flame flickered for a second over Cloud's head before dying out in the cold. "I can't do it," the beast replied weakly, "The wind is too strong. Too…"

The beast collapsed from the cold and Barret rushed to his aid.

"Would potions help?" Barret asked.

Cid dropped from the cold, then Yuffie.

"Barret, we need to find refuge from this wind!" Tifa cried, but her voice was barely audible over the storm, "We'll die out here!"

"Well c'mon, Tifa. We gotta drag 'em somewhere!"

A few steps at a time, Tifa, Barret and Vincent moved the bodies forward, sliding along the ice. Vincent grabbed Yuffie and Nanaki while Tifa struggled to move Cloud's body. She blasted their clothes with fire, but the flame snuffed out before it could even catch. Mucus froze on her upper lip, and the moisture in her eyes stabbed at her, it was crystallizing. Onward she pulled at Cloud's arms. She soon fell victim to the cold and collapsed atop Cloud. Barret as well collapsed onto the ice and Vincent was left standing alone in the endless white field.


	101. Book 4: Gaia's Cliff

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T  
**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 21  
**

**Gaia's Cliff**

After the fireplace had warmed his muscles and mind, Cloud awoke peacefully. He was indoors, a wooden house. It was still colder than he would have enjoyed, but he was beside a roaring fireplace. Nanaki was curled up at his legs, his tail resting between Cloud's feet – the illusionary fire never catching. Cloud tried to move his foot. It was painful – still raw, but it twitched.

Nanaki opened his eye lazily and looked at the party leader. "You're awake," the beast said gratefully.

"Hey, Nanaki," Cloud smiled, "Where are we? Is the journey over?"

"You collapsed," came a foreign voice above them. From an upper loft, a man descended – a wide man, unkempt and raggedy looking. Cloud rolled his head to his side to look at him. "You collapsed in the great glacier. I found you and brought you here. It's a miracle you're all right. My name is Holzoff, and I've been living here for twenty years."

"In the great glacier?" Cloud asked.

Holzoff nodded, "Yes. I've been here at the base of Gaia's cliff, I built my home here."

Cloud felt weak and passed out again.

The next day, when Cloud could walk confidently again, Holzoff treated him to some herbal tea.

"Herbs here are as rare as they are in Midgar," Holzoff laughed, "for some reason, barely anything can live out here. There are, however, some vegetations on the cliffside. If I want to eat something more than meat I have to climb up thirty metres."

"Why do you live here?" Cloud asked.

"There's an old legend," Holzoff explained, "That says something fell from the sky here a long time ago – the force from the impact caused the land to rise up and form this cliff – the barrier between us as the very top of our world. Thirty years ago, Yamski and I took this cliff on to see what was on the other side. But we weren't prepared for it. We expected the temperature to be low, but on the cliffside, there's always a biting cold wind that lowers your body temperature. Once you reach the inside of the cliff, the natural caves are warm and beautiful – but they're also few and far between. Yamski was below me… he cut his own rope." The old man sighed, "I didn't even notice. Ever since then, I've settled here, continuing to challenge the cliff and to provide warning and shelter to my fellow travellers."

"Thank you for your hospitality," Cloud nodded, "We have to go."

"You're still not at your best health, yet," Holzoff warned, "You should rest here for another day or so."

"Thanks, but we have to go."

Cloud stepped into the other room where the party was waiting for him. They seemed to be as fine as he felt.

"We're going," he announced, "get your things."

As Cloud was on his way to Holzoff's restroom before their trip, Barret stopped him in the hallway.

"Cloud," he called, "C'mon, man you need to rest."

"We've wasted too much time already. How long was I out for?"

"About a week," Barret hesitated with his honest reply, "We was worried you weren't ever comin' back."

"A _week_?" Cloud cried, "Then we must hurry faster, then. Have Nanaki get as many supplies as he can from Holzoff – if we're going to challenge Gaia's cliff we need rope and harnesses – even for Vincent and Nanaki."

"Cloud listen to me goddamnit!" Barret spoke sternly, his voice booming through the hallway, "You've been goin' and goin' non-stop and yer jes' gonna wear yourself so thin that Sephiroth will cut y'up as soon as look at ya. I know how you feel, man, you're hurtin. You have that same look about you as I did when Shinra killed Myrna. But if there's one thing we both should've learned on our trip 'round the world, it's that bein' right don't make you invincible. We've lost too many, Cloud, too many that took too much on their shoulders. The Sector 7 bombing was out of our hands, man, that's why we died. An' Aeris, takin' all our problems on our shoulders an' runnin' off by herself? And now you, when it's most important."

"It's why we have to go, Barret. If we stay another instant, Sephiroth could summon Meteor and then the fate of the world will be out of everyone's hands."

"It'll be useless to try if you ain't ready to face him! What'll happen to you if he kills Tifa, huh? Or Nanaki or Cid? Are you willin' to put all of their lives at stake because you couldn't protect 'em?"

"I didn't want this. I didn't want them as a liability. They came because they have just as much cause to kill him as I do. If they die – if we all die, then the deaths would mean something."

"Not if you die from exhaustion before you even see him. Think, man!"

"We head out immediately. That's final."

The group awaited Cloud outside of Holzoff's cabin. They were literally at the base of the cliff – the wind that rushed along the cliffside smashed against the side of the log cabin and had torn rips in Holzoff's meek white flag, crowning his house as if to surrender to nature.

"I've been thinkin'" Barret said, shivering already.

Cloud wanted him to save it for later, expecting another lecture on his health. Barret looked up at the cliff – which went higher than anyone could see; hundreds of metres, perhaps more.

"Seein' a place like this makes you realize how awesome nature is," Barret gaped up as the cliff ascended into the white nothingness of speeding snow. "But if anyone told me to live here, I'd tell them to… you know… If I_ did_ have to live here, I'd change things around 'n make it better. I guess the total opposite of this place would be Midgar. When I think about it that way, Midgar was a good concept to begin with – makin' the Planet a better place to live so that we can survive comfortably. But in order to do that, we have to eat up the Lifestream. Kinda like Jenova."

"Well," Cloud said, "It's only a few humans who don't care about the Lifestream – most people just don't know. We wouldn't knowingly destroy the Planet just to live."

Barret shook his head, "I don't know. I jes' don't know anymore. Bein' in a place like this, where nature is stickin' its tongue out at us. We can't compete with it – it's kill or be killed. I jes' don't know anymore."

"Let's move out."

When everyone was secured with a harness, they fired the ropes into the cliffside above with harpoon cannons. Cid tugged on the ropes to ensure they were secure. Every one of them was perfect except his own. When the rope fell back down – it took a tediously long time – he smiled sheepishly and tried again.

They began scaling Gaia's Cliff.

When they reached ledges, they huddled together for warmth. They were brief – only enough friction to last them the next short climb. Most of the time, Nanaki could not climb the incredibly steep rock wall, so he had to be pulled up when others reached a ledge above him. Vincent walked along the cliffside as if it were ground, his movements so deft that Cloud barely noticed him shortening his rope to secure his position.

Barret had a hard time – the wind blew him about and his feet slipped often. Adjusting the rope to his position was difficult with one hand, and he fumbled on occasion, slipping down a few metres.

Cid stabbed his spear into the rock wall for extra support. He had a cigarette in his mouth – unlit because he knew the wind would blow it out before he could enjoy it. He simply felt more comfortable with the filtered end in his mouth – it allowed him to relax more.

Cloud was higher than the rest, pushing himself to the limit as Barret had warned him against. With this momentum, he reasoned, he could leap over the mountaintop and kill Sephiroth before exhaustion took him. The wind battered his already tangled yellow hair; it blew in his eyes frequently. He didn't need to see where he was going. 'Up' always looked the same.

When they finally did reach a cave, They retracted their ropes and pulled Nanaki up to meet them. Xander quickly scanned for danger before helping tow the beast up.

The wind wasn't batting at them inside the cave. After huddling for warmth for half an hour, their teeth stopped chattering and they turned around to fully digest the visual spectacle before them. The cavern was made of crystals. The growths protruding from all around them were too neat to be ice – too clean, transparent. It was elegant, like the forgotten city. "The crystals beneath the Planet's surface," Nanaki gaped in wonderment, "They've all been pushed to the highest altitude because of the catastrophe."

"Does that mean that monsters from underground could be up here too?" Cid asked nervously, "Because shit, man, I'm not stickin' around for those."

"If we run into any," Yuffie smirked, "just think of them as practice for Sephiroth."

"Sephiroth is nothing compared to an allemagne! Cycloptic bats as large as houses, wielders of the most powerful black magic in known legend!"

"Well, 'sides Meteor," Barret filled his eyes with shattered reflections of himself in the crystal, "No wonder the Ancients were wiped out. Somethin' as big as this woulda wiped out humanity too."

Cloud continued on, barely looking at their surroundings. There was a flat enough surface for them to move upon, it led them on a winding pathway, going under and crossing over cavalcades of crystal – which glowed with the faintest traces of spirit energy, the colours passing over multiple crystals, as if the magic had been released into the air to move as it wished.

The cave opened up, some twenty metres up, out to the cliffside once more. Looking down, they were too high up to see the base of the cliff – too far away to see the great glacier or Icicle Inn in the distance. Their world had become only the cliff and the gorgeous, mako stained caves within.

"We can't shoot our harpoons from here," Nanaki observed, "And to step away from the cliff would be a risk not worth taking."

"That sounds like a challenge!" Cid shouted, and leapt out of the cave and into open air.

As he began to fall, Cid managed to spin around mid-air and fire his harpoon gun at the cliffside high above. The rope flew up as Cid fell down and in the next few seconds, it hit and Cid swung into the snowy rocks just below the cavemouth.

After recovering quickly from his impact, he climbed up the rope to meet them.

"Ain't so hard," he laughed, "Now do you babies want me to secure your ropes for you again?"

Tifa moved towards him and slapped him clean across the face.

"Hey! Ow! What the hell, Tifa?!"

"Don't ever scare us like that again. If you die doing something foolhardy, make sure it's for a good reason next time."

The next few minutes consisted of Cid swinging away from the cliffside, firing harpoons above them, and swinging back to hand them their ropes.

They began to climb again after every rope was secured.

The wind was even stronger, the spaces between ledges more severe. Cloud persevered because his mind was always on the past. He felt warm when he thought of happier times – those peaceful days in the Grasslands, when there was no question of trust, little concept of death. Just peace. Of those weeks on_ The Tiny Bronco_, with the pale hand caressing his sensitive skin. When the cold cut through the memories he would think of the flames of Nibelheim, singeing his nerve endings. The fear, pain and anger helped him climb, the vision of the sword cutting through Aeris helped him clutch the rope tighter.

When they reached a ledge, their huddles became longer. Just seeing each other allowed them to feel warmer. They smiled at each other as they jumped around, happy to connect with people before braving the challenges that nature threw at them.

The next cave was another three kilometres up – almost half a day's climb. Night was falling when they got inside, and the wind was calm enough that they set up a camp. Torches were made into a fire and they sat very close to it for a long time. Silence was king. They eventually slept. While Nanaki was keeping the fire going, Vincent turned to the lupine beast.

"You could always give me your materia," he said, "I slumber rarely."

"You know how to use materia?" Nanaki asked.

"Yes," Vincent replied, "I can feel the intricacies of the ethereal plane – whenever Cloud summons an ancient god, I can feel the steps he takes. Such things I could not feel before I was put to sleep."

"You're welcome to try," with one fluid, well-practised move, Nanaki popped the materia from its spot in his bladed headdress and it rolled over the crystal towards Vincent. The tall man picked up the orb with his bronze arm and examined it.

"Yes," he said, "This land is rich in spirit energy. I wouldn't be surprised if it endowed us all with magical skills."

Nanaki smiled, hopeful.

"That is, if it didn't kill us all with mako poisoning first."

Nanaki's face drooped and he watched the fire as Vincent sparked a larger flame. Nanaki looked to the pale man, expecting conversation to continue afterwards, but Vincent had already sunk back into his collar, and so Nanaki closed his eye and let sleep take him for the night.

They awoke peacefully; Nanaki popped the materia back into its slot. They continued through the cave until it opened again.

This opening, luckily, had a ledge long enough for them to easily secure ropes without doing "something stupid," as Yuffie snorted at Cid.

They climbed until the afternoon when they reached another crystal cave, which they moved through easily. There was a geothermal spring they stopped to break at, and there they ate rations in sombre silence. Nanaki talked about the marvel of a hot spring in a cliff caused by a dramatic change. Cloud felt out of breath, tired and cranky. He pulled off his gloves to dip his hand in. His skin was still sensitive to the touch – but the cold had gnawed away at his nerves – when he first put his hand into the hot spring, it was numb and he wasn't sure that he had put his hand inside of anything at all. Soon the cold passed and his fingers felt neutral as if they didn't exist at all.

There was a screaming from around the bend. So startled to have heard someone yell out, Cloud leapt up and unsheathed his sword, running around the corner.

What he saw didn't register for a moment.

A figure shrouded in a black cloak was dead on the ground. Another one of Sephiroth's flunkies, that did not surprise Cloud.

It was the creature standing over him.

At first it seemed as large as an eledunk, thick and slow, barely fitting into the long tunnel. It was as red as blood – covered in scales and the shape of a giant lizard. When it swerved its head to look at them, its eyes glinted with intelligence that rivalled Nanaki's. It opened its great maws – rows of razor sharp fangs dripped with blood.

What startled Cloud most was the wings – if it weren't for the wings, he might have shrugged it off as a great lizard that he had never heard of before - but the wings could not be ignored, they were enormous, leathery red and overbearing.

It was a dragon, and there was nothing Cloud could do to deny that fact.

For an instant, he nearly pretended it wasn't there, before Barret came around the corner and shouted "Holy shit it's a… it's a…!"

"It's dead meat, that's what it is!" Cid threw his spear. The well-crafted wooden weapon rang through the air straight and true. It poked between the dragon's scales and lodged itself there. The dragon looked at the weapon, confused. Reaching up with its front claws, it pulled the spear out and snapped it in half, tossing the splinters asunder before continuing to charge at the party.

"Do something, Cloud!" Cid cried.

Cloud stood, in shock, at the existence of such a creature. Barret began to fire at the dragon and shortly after, Vincent began to fire as well.

Tifa, as confused as Cloud was, had the presence of mind to conjure a fire spell, which erupted on one of the dragon's wings.

Turning to look at the wing, which was undamaged, the dragon turned to face the party, and Cloud could have sword that its eyebrows were raised in a jesting fashion – it mocked the party for thinking that flame could damage it. Opening its mouth, it roared at them and fire exploded from its throat, hurtling down the hall towards them.

Cloud felt the sword in his hand as the fire became very real to him. Bringing the sword up to guard himself, the thick blade became a full-body shield as the fire smashed into it – singeing his knuckles and curling around to threaten his back before dying out.

When Cloud removed the blade the dragon's claw was already coming at him – slashing across his arm and spilling blood all over the crystal.

"Big Guard!" cried Yuffie and Cloud felt slightly euphoric, almost like curative magic but not as severe. Yuffie's yellow materia glowed as did the whole of AVALANCHE for a moment. Cloud looked at his arm – it was still bleeding profusely, but when the claw battered his face, the impact was not so severe. A magical barrier – that was what Yuffie had created.

Barret was already back and firing at the dragon, his blood bullets hitting the inside of the dragon's mouth before the legendary monster had the presence of mind to shut it. The bullets bounced harmlessly off of its scales, but the ones that had hit inside caused blood to flow slowly from between the snarling teeth.

"What we need!" Barret shouted, "Is a materia keeper right now!"

Cloud remembered their encounter with that creature – in stories both had been legend to him. When he learned that the materia keeper had been real, he should have accepted the option that dragons, too, might exist. But it was too late now and Cloud was still in a daze, acting only on reflex. The pain in his arm seemed to wake him up a little, it shook the exhaustion and the disbelief away from him and he ran towards the creature.

An incoming claw was deflected by the buster sword and as the dragon opened its mouth again, Cloud reached into his green magic orb and conjured magical ice – as the two conflicting elements raced towards each other, they were both cancelled out. Cloud slid underneath the dragon's soft underbelly and plunged the sword deep inside. The dragon roared in fury and pain as blood dripped onto Cloud.

Nanaki leapt towards the dragon and met with her face, clawing at her eyes before being thrown off. Blood trailed after Nanaki, who landed unceremoniously on the crystal floor.

The dragon thrashed her head around – bleeding from her eyes. As the wings flapped twice, the dragon retreated out of the tunnel and back into the sky.

"We defeated her?" Cid asked in surprise. "A fucking dragon?"

"Shame we didn't kill it," Yuffie sighed as the winged creature flew off into the late afternoon sun, "That hide would have been worth a pretty penny."

"I'll bet that thing is as old as mankind," Nanaki said, "I'll bet it was around when Jenova first arrived here. A dragon; it was a thing of myth. Now we know that anything is possible. Whatever awaits us above the crest of the mountain – nothing can surprise us now."


	102. Book 4: The Promised Land

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 22**

**The Promised Land**

They could see the top of the cliff from the cave mouth, and they climbed steadily towards it. There was no more snow, for the storm was far below them. The cliff was made of ice and rock. Their path was limned with crystal fragments, tracing the final few metres to the crest of the cliff.

Above the top of the mountain, small lines of blue and green light danced together in the sky. None of them quite knew what to make of the visual phenomenon, as they had never heard of such an occurrence. Aeris might have had a name for it, as she knew of the Planet's secrets. It was as if someone had splashed paint between the stars.

As the ground began to curve and they didn't need to climb anymore, their steps were languorous and long. They stood at the very top – conquerors of Gaia's Cliff. Cloud looked down at the crater.

It was a perfect half-sphere – the cliff was steadily high all the way around and the descent into the vortex was consistent. A swirling whirlwind amalgamated at the very centre of the crater – where a great natural-looking crystal sphere had built upon itself. It didn't take Cloud long to recognize the strange obelisk as pure materia. The mist of the whirlwind splashed against the sides of the concaved crystal and sparkled with surprising vivacity. As Cloud began down the curvature of the crater, he soon noted that the mist he saw was most likely Lifestream, swirling into the centre of the crater, where his nemesis lay.

The stones they tread on during their descent were massive, house-sized boulders – held together by the sheer weight of them. Barret on occasion needed some help down without slipping. Cloud lent him a hand before thinking.

When it was steady enough to walk, they found that the mist seeped from below the boulders and past their feet. They finally touched on solid ground and the mist strode quietly past their knees.

"Two thousand years ago," Cloud sighed, "Something crashed down here, creating this crater, this wound. Now the Planet is sending its spirit energy here to heal it, but Sephiroth is taking that power and trying to use Meteor. Next time, the wound won't be so small."

Huge black obelisks jetted out from the mist, towering above the party. He found it strange how they all leaned towards the centre of the crater, when the collision with the calamity must have blown everything away from it. With Lifestream being gathered towards the source of the wound for so long, the Planet itself had grown outwards, stretching like a sunflower with the flow of the Lifestream.

"The time has come to settle things with Sephiroth, huh?" Tifa asked, knowing full well the reply would be a silent, astute nod. "I, too, have lost many things because of Sephiroth. No matter what, Cloud, I'm right here beside you."

His mouth curved into the beginning of a smile – how long had it been since he had smiled? When he thought about it, he strode forward, the mist curling around the buster sword in its faithful spot on his back.

They marched onward through the mist until cracks in the ground began to form and the mist seeped back down into them – the land was withering around them and they felt it. The eating of the Lifestream had caused the area underneath the wound to become hollow and weak. They tread on thin rocks. The mist was nearly gone when the saw the first black-cloaked man, shrouded in darkness, marching idly towards a cliff edge. When he reached the edge, he stopped for just a moment – long enough for Cloud to think that he might not jump. But within another instant he crumpled and fell down into the mist, with no satisfying thud to tell them how far down he had fallen. He simply fell into the mist and oblivion, and an eerie silence washed over them – only the constant whisper of the wind continued ahead.

Their path became all the more narrow as they continued on – as sturdy land became scarce. Most of the weak rocks had collapsed this close to the centre – Cloud wondered if it had taken a million cloaked men to wander onto them for them to disappear.

Suddenly, the wind became very harsh ahead and a wall of green mist blew before them – as the spirit energy that had fallen into the earth had arose again in triumphant defiance of the Planet's pathetic decay. The wind had been so strong, so resilient and forceful that their rock path had been severed and it was a half-metre jump to the other side.

"We'll never make it," Yuffie whined, "as soon as we jump, the wind will carry us down into who-knows-where."

"Wait," Cloud sighed as the wind began to calm. No longer was it strong enough to cut the rocks, but it seemed a gentle, forgiving breeze. After staring a minute, the wind picked up again and batted against the rocks. They braced themselves even where they stood, as the winds were harsh. Cloud turned to them and announced, "Next time the wind is calm, we jump."

A minute passed by and the wind began to calm. Cloud ran forward and leapt towards the other side – passing unhindered. The rest followed until Yuffie, who had been hesitant and now it seemed the wind was too harsh for a safe jump.

Before Cloud could yell "Wait!" a second time, Yuffie leapt into the wind and before she reached the other side was tossed away into the air from the harsh winds. As the rest of the party reacted to the horrific sight of Yuffie's fatal flight, Vincent was already jumping back into the wall of wind and flew off after her.

* * *

The wind blew his cape into his face, but Vincent was certain that the wind was carrying him up. It might have been because the experiments performed on him had caused him to be lighter than average or it might have just been the extremity of the gale forces, but the ex-Turk knew that both he and Yuffie were being hurled quickly up and around.

As the cape blew elsewhere, he could see her just ahead on him – four constant twirling limbs flying at his speed so that he could not catch up with her. Leaning forward, he pulled the gun from his holster and aimed very carefully – making sure both eyes were open. At their velocity, it was almost impossible to aim – but he trusted in himself and his gun and when the moment was right, he pulled the trigger.

Nothing was audible to Yuffie but the wind in her ears when suddenly something pierced through her metallic shoulder ornament and thudded lightly against her skin. The new jolt added to her motion sickness and she closed her eyes in fear of vomiting. She was hurdled out of the wind storm and towards a thin rocky ledge – the dark misty gloom of the void on either side. With the wind gone, she collected herself and opened her eyes. At her speed, she would smack the ledge and bounce right down to her death.

Something cold and crimson wrapped around her and she felt herself slowing. Surely it wasn't her materia; she had de-equipped it to make room for Leviathan. All she could stare at was a red material waving in front of her eyes as she slowed to a stop.

Vincent's cape fixed itself and she was in his arms. They stood on the rocky ledge beyond the wall of wind. Yuffie moved out of his arms and stood facing him.

"You could have died," she said.

"I doubt it," Vincent replied coldly and moved past her.

Yuffie opened her mouth to thank him, but realized it might sound out of character. "Hey! You shot me!" She followed quickly after.

* * *

"We keep moving," Cloud ordered, "This is the way we all knew it would happen. Let nothing halt us, we have a Planet to save."

The men in black cloaks were increasing in number, all lumbering as well towards the centre of the crater. They mumbled incoherencies, gawking about Sephiroth and the reunion before plunging to their deaths or simply expiring on the rocks before them. Cloud wasn't even bothering check the bodies anymore, he simply moved along the rocky paths. Tifa watched the party march blindly through the cascades of black cloaked men and realized that they fit in nicely with the pack.

Tifa's brain began to muddle – at first it was a small dizziness from all the sights – beautiful and horrific – it had begun when Yuffie had been tossed through the air by the wind and Vincent threw himself into the darkness to save her. The loss of both of her friends so suddenly had caused her to see things strangely. But there was something else at work – all the spirit energy surrounding them, it felt hypnotic as though it tore her from reality. She felt like she had when she first awoke in Midgar, at the doorstep of Seventh Heaven. She felt worn like after using magic – a kind of spiritual emptiness.

"We can't stay here much longer," she said, "We'll get mako poisoning."

"Let's just hurry it up!" Cid began, and had phrased it like he wanted to say more, but by that time everyone had frozen.

Ahead, the last surviving cloaked men stood beside another – taller and with a different coat than they, almost a cape underneath two glisteningly white pauldrons. His long silver hair blew about in the wind and he struck the two black-cloaked men down with it. His followers stumbled off the rocky path and down into the mist – which whipped at the side of the path most vigorously.

One of the cloaked men impaled himself on a stalactite – right through the belly. The cloaked hood fell off just before the stalactite snapped and they all could have sworn it was Sephiroth's face behind the mask as well. As the rocks crumbled, the last cloaked man fell down into the abyss as silently as the others.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted and the man stood still, his back still facing them. Cloud unsheathed his sword, "This is the end!"

"You're right," Sephiroth's voice carried magnificently over the wind – it echoed in their ears as if they were in a silent room with him. "This is the end of this body's usefulness."

When the world grew darker, Sephiroth disappeared, leaving only a jet of blue smoke bursting from beneath the rocks. Cloud's heart pounded in his throat as his sword remained at the ready.

"He damn disappeared!" Barret shouted, muffled by the beating of Cloud's heart.

"He might still be nearby," Tifa warned – in response, Sephiroth's voice boomed from the wind itself.

"Our purpose is to deliver the black materia to our master."

"_Our_ purpose?" Cloud asked.

"Those who carry Jenova's cells."

"Master…" the party leader thought, "Of course, it's Sephiroth."

As if congratulating him, Sephiroth's eerie voice laughed in the wind, a dreadful snicker that distracted them while he materialized in the air behind them.

With a single swooping motion, he flew past them and emitted an energy that knocked them all down onto the rocks. Sephiroth came to stand a ways away from them, facing them, daring them to challenge him. To his surprise, Cloud was able to stand and bare his sword ahead of him, grimacing at the pain and fear, but steadfast and ready to fight.

When the rest of the party began to rise, Sephiroth flicked his sword and burst out of his skin.

At first it looked like the villain was melting – his facial features distorted and wrinkled as the fleshy disguise ripped open, revealing a black and purple mass of flesh – at once a beautiful humanoid woman and a terrifying monster more fear-inducing than that of the dragon they had challenged earlier.

It looked like a larger stronger version than the monsters they had fought on the cargo boat, and in the forgotten capital. Back then, they had more allies – more combatants to dispose of her. Their forces were thin now, there was no one to heal them, no one to slow time, no one to transform.

Cloud, Tifa, Cid, Barret and Nanaki stood before the monstrous Jenova, who sneered down at them in a horrifyingly beautiful way, screaming inaudibly into their brains:_death, death, death_!

Tifa was the first to break their petrified stance, running up to the creature and kicking her foot deep inside the flesh. Using that as leverage, she somersaulted around and tore her foot back out and a chunk of the monster faded into oblivion.

'_The cells,'_ Cloud realized, _'Jenova cells aren't just in the physical realm – they are returning to the whole when they disappear. As the men in cloaks. The Jenova Reunion. That is what this whole thing is about!'_

The familiar sound of Barret's gunshots were heard from behind them – but Cloud was too slow for Jenova's tentacles, which wrapped around the buster sword and tossed it away from him. All he could do was watch in horror as his historic sword flew down into the mist after the cloaked men – down into the darkness. He was unarmed, with only Shiva's amulet at his side.

Suddenly, a great fireball swelled at the end of Barret's gatling gun. Cloud recognized this spell – Dyne had cast a massive fire spell on a single bullet. Barret was now doing the same, and Cloud felt a magic tug being absorbed in his direction as he felt the spirit energy from the mako rich area being drawn into Barret.

As the fireball swelled, Barret smirked and pulled the trigger. Rocketing towards the creature, the bullet exploded and tore nearly half of the monster apart – it flickered out of physical existence.

Tifa gaped at Barret as her fire materia ceased glowing. He had used the powers of her materia.

Jenova screamed in terror and shrunk back into a regular fragment of tentacle. Cloud ran up to it and kicked the fleshy length down into the mist after the buster sword.

"Barret!" Tifa cried, "How did you do that?!"

Barret said nothing, as surprised as she was. "That wasn't Sephiroth," was all he could come up with after a minute of silence.

"No," Cloud replied, "It was a fragment of Jenova. She's been moving by herself."

"Jenova?" Tifa asked, "You mean this whole time it wasn't Sephiroth that we've been after?"

"I'll explain later," Cloud sighed, "Right now the only thing I'm concerned about is killing him."

With no such hesitation, Cloud sat on the edge of the cliffside and began to lower himself onto a lower ledge.

"Cloud!" Nanaki asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm getting my sword."

"Who knows how far down that damn hole goes!" Barret cried.

Cloud paid no heed and continued to climb slowly down the edge of the rocky support. The wind battered at his back – it felt strange without the sword, light and cold. He continued down as a gale force crumbled a rock support a few metres away. As it broke apart it flew upwards into the storm.

The wind was so strong that Cloud found it difficult to detach from the rock wall he clung to. This made climbing easier as he continued down, the wind holding him steady against the cliff side.

The buster sword was in sight – it had impaled itself on the rocky ledge opposite him. He reached for it but was much too far away. As he tried to stretch his arm, his hand slipped and he fell for a short second before catching himself – and the wind pinned him back onto the wall.

As the wind calmed, Cloud reached again but to no avail. Something red flickered below him; before he had a chance to register that it might be important, Vincent leapt up from the darkness and grabbed onto the hilt of the sword – his cape blew into Cloud's face.

As the ex-Turk pulled the sword from the wall, the surrounding pebbles blew with the wind – whipping Cloud's body fiercely. With three small jumps, Vincent leapt up between the walls and was standing at the top with Tifa and Yuffie. The girls reached down for Cloud and he climbed back up, grabbing both their hands as they pulled him to safety.

"You made it," Cloud was taken aback. Vincent flicked his cape.

"Think we'd die that easily?" Yuffie laughed, "Don't take us for a fool. Let's get Sephiroth!"

Tifa looked solemn. "But Sephiroth is…"

"He's here," Cloud announced with alarming resolve. "The real Sephiroth is just beyond here, he's been here all along. It's both incredibly wicked and cruel, but he's releasing a powerfully strong will from deep within the Planet's wound."

There was something small and round by his foot – Jenova must have been holding it. He picked it up. "The black materia is back in our hands," he announced, "Now all we have to do is defeat Sephiroth and that will be the end of it."

"We better not take the black materia any further," Tifa said, "Why don't you give it to someone else to hold on to?"

Cloud agreed, "It's too risky to take it where he'll be at. Nanaki, I'm entrusting you with this materia. Don't give it to _anyone_, I'm counting on you. Tifa, Barret and I will head forward, the rest of you – guard Nanaki with your lives. Securing the black materia is the most important thing we can do right now."

He turned to Tifa and Barret, "Let's go find Sephiroth."

* * *

Please Review Me! I'll love you forever! 


	103. Book 4: The Highwind Takes Flight

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 23**

**The Highwind Takes Flight**

"This is Highwind officer Will Bleer preparing for departure."

"Roger that, Will, you are clear for takeoff."

As each propeller on the monstrous Shinra airship spun faster, the ropes that had fastened it to Junon's airport path released and it began to sail north on the president's orders. Rufus Shinra himself stood at the very nose of the bridge, looking through the enormous, dome-shaped windshield as they passed over Junon – increasing in speed until the ocean was a blur beneath them.

After the last few months had proven fruitless for him in all endeavors – finding Sephiroth, killing Cloud (thus avenging Dark Nation) and keeping rebels in Fort Condor and the slums under his heel, Rufus had exhausted his emotional bank and he was now a man with minimal passion for anything at all, neither adoring nor abhorring anything. He was now a man who hated everything just a little – he didn't hate anything in particular, but he couldn't remember a day in his recent life that he was ever impressed or enraptured in anything. Even Rhonda, his late fiancé had never really impressed him. He always saw the relationship as settling for mediocrity, as strangely beautiful she was in her filth. Looking back, he reasoned that he never quite enjoyed the company of Dark Nation either, but when those two were taken away from him, he hated that as well – enough to hate Cloud Strife and his father a little more, but he always thought that he was never upset enough.

Heidegger and Scarlet accompanied him on the bridge, cackling and whinnying and filling the bridge with horrific laughter. Rufus hated them and their laughter a little, but he also hated being alone.

"Worth the wait, eh?" Heidegger guffawed, "We'll be at the Great Glacier in no time! I have a garrison securing Icicle Inn; they're accompanied by one of the Turks. Everything beyond there is open ice and Sephiroth is somewhere on it."

"Says Hojo. He'll most likely be somewhere obvious," Rufus brushed his hair from his eyes, he already knew about Elena at Icicle Inn – he had sent her there. Heidegger was simply repeating everything Rufus had told him yesterday. "Just shut up and keep your eyes open."

Hojo creeped onto the bridge from the stairwell at the back, chuckling to himself. Rude, who had been assigned his escort, walked lazily behind him. After approaching Rufus with information about Sephiroth's destination, Hojo had asked to come with them but spent most of his time rubbing his hands together and chuckling eerily. Rude was getting tired of the whole business but never uttered a peep of protest, he simply shadowed the professor and listened intently to his babble – making note of every word without making it seem like he was listening. Rude had become exceptionally good at feigning ignorance these many years with the Turks. He had picked up that Tseng had been an Orunai long before he had confessed it to his underlings – he even noticed that Tseng had Wutaian blood far down the line – eerily similar to Reeve, whose ideas of honour and humility conflicted with his job. Tseng was dead now, there was no denying it – killed by a long blade, be it Cloud or Sephiroth it didn't matter. What mattered was that the Turks were nearly disbanded, instead being tossed from one department to another – they were under Reeve's control, then Heidegger's, until Rufus finally decided to take on the Turks by himself. For someone who was most displeased all of the time, Rufus found a way to accommodate everyone – how unlike his father.

Hojo muffled a chortle as he walked by a young, jittery officer. "Officer Bleer?" Hojo asked, "Why are you shaking?"

"I've never been in the air before," Will answered, "I've never even done any flight simulators."

"And they made you an officer?" Hojo laughed, "Shinra has really fallen apart since Cathal died. Tell me, Rude. How are the Turks holding up under Rufus's rule?"

Rude replied by clearing his throat but uttered nothing.

"I see."

Hojo shuffled to the nose of the bridge, standing beside Rufus and Heidegger – they stared down at the ice below them as the Highwind sailed effortlessly past. Scarlet commented on the grandeur of the snow. Rufus feigned a smile – but it was no more impressive than waking up that morning. Endless white fields of never melting snow and he imagined that a good bowl of stir-fry would rival its opulence.

"We're approaching Gaia's Cliff," called the pilot.

"Will we make it over?" Rufus asked.

"We should, prepare for incline."

The ship tilted back and they all had to secure their footing as to not stumble.

When the Highwind cleared the tip of Gaia's cliff, they looked down on the great northern crater, astonishingly massive in its grandeur and circumstance. The winds created an impenetrable wall of light in the centre – so strong now that they couldn't see the middle.

"So," Rufus recognized this place from his wildest fantasies, "I've finally found you."

He filled his eyes with it – if there was a thing on the Planet that could have moved Rufus Shinra out of his melancholy, it was surely this sight. The ethereal beauty satisfied even the blind.

Scarlet broke the air with a shrill "Kyaa ha ha! This is incredible!"

"This is the Promised Land that President Shinra was looking for!" Heidegger exclaimed.

"But I'll be the one who gets it," Rufus was terrifyingly excited; he hadn't felt this aquiver since before his memory allowed. With such love flowing into him, he felt that his anger rose as well, for his emotions swelled with each passing second he looked at his father's dream. He hated his father and the dream – more than just a little now. "Sorry, old man."

"That land is no one's," Hojo giggled, "This is where the Reunion will take place. I wonder if we can see Sephiroth from up here."

"You mean he's down there?" Rufus asked.

"I have no doubts about it," Hojo giggled.

"Prepare the anchors!" Rufus shouted, "We land inside that wall of wind!"


	104. Sephiroth’s Illusion: The Gates of Nibel

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

** CHAPTER 24**

**Sephiroth's Illusion: The Gates of Nibelheim II**

Cloud, Barret and Tifa walked along the ever thinning rocky path – the world on either side crumpled in decay and fell into the misty depths of the earth. They continued on as the great crystal shell lay before them when suddenly everything went bright white.

Cloud was expecting this – by now Sephiroth would know that bright lights startled him, but it was Tifa who cried out. "What is this? What happened?!"

Despite himself, Cloud assured her, "Calm down, Tifa. Sephiroth is near – anything could happen."

"We've been goddamn blinded, man!"

"We know which direction we need to go," Cloud said, "The path leads straight into the crystal – don't deter from it. Keep walking."

They walked even though all they could see was a blinding whiteness. Soon, a familiar noise filled Tifa's ears.

She recognized it from her earliest days of experiencing noise – it was the sound of the wind creaking through the hood of grandpapa's truck. Soon light in her eyes dimmed a little and she could see the truck in front of her. Grandpapa Lockheart had a truck parked next to the gates of Nibelheim; it had been rusting against the wall of his home since his death. No one moved it, as Grandpapa Lockheart had been loved in the community and it served as a testament to his existence. His son, Tifa's father had even been voted mayor, in hopes that he had gleaned some of his father's honour.

The light dimmed more and its surroundings faded into existence. Barret and Cloud were now visible, walking beside her. The ground they walked on was green and lush – it didn't even feel like rock anymore. The only place the grass was dead was the throughway under the arch – the gates of Nibelheim.

The water tower sat in the distance, what was once a mysterious obelisk of childhood was now humbled by their age. It was the same town they had passed through last month, but something felt more real about this town than it had the last time. This was exactly how the town had looked five years ago.

In fact, the six wheeled armoured buggy was there, just like five years ago.

"Are we high on mako or somethin'?" Barret asked, "Why the hell are we in Nibelheim?"

Cloud shook his head and Tifa looked at him, anxious as to what he might say. "This must be an illusion Sephiroth made up. He's trying to confuse us. It'll be all right, as long as we know it's an illusion, then there's nothing to be afraid of."

The door of the buggy fell open, turned into a ramp and Sephiroth strode out. When he walked, he walked like he was underwater – the air undulated around him as if shying away from his power. This was Sephiroth before the madness, a resolved power that he could control – he had lived with it his entire life.

"How does it feel?" Sephiroth turned and asked into the buggy, "This is the first time you've been back to your hometown in a while, right? So how does it feel?"

There was no response from the buggy, and Cloud twitched a little. Sephiroth turned and walked past Barret. The giant was frozen in fear but Sephiroth seemed not to notice him – it was as if the events were simply replaying themselves before their eyes. "I wouldn't know," Sephiroth sighed, "I never had a hometown."

"What about your parents?" came a voice from inside the buggy. Tifa immediately looked at Barret and Cloud – neither of them recognized the voice.

"My mother's name is Jenova," Sephiroth said plainly, knowing only a name at the time – no connotation of alien parasite or experimental subject to cloud his mind. "She died right after giving birth to me. My father…"

Sephiroth grew a smirk and began to laugh quietly inside his chest. Regaining his composure, he shrugged the topic off. "What does it matter?" he asked, and passed the gates into Nibelheim. "Let's go."

The town was quiet. Everyone was locked away inside their houses, afraid to come out because of the mutants. Or was it because they knew what Shinra was sending to them? Two members of the most fearsome organization on the Planet had arrived in Nibelheim.

The second SOLDIER walked out of the buggy and Barret stepped back in surprise.

Flanked by two escort MPs, the young SOLDIER was of average height, a little skinny but with toned muscles that bulged from his chest and underneath both of his iron pauldrons. On his back was the familiar buster sword that Cloud carried on his back now. But there was something different about the SOLDIER that set him completely apart from Cloud and that was his hair.

While still in the habit of defying gravity with its mangled spiky mess, the hair was jet black and longer than shoulder-length. A few long bangs fell in front of the dark face. While it seemed to Tifa that Cloud was surprised to see that it wasn't himself flanked by two MPs, he soon smirked and shook his head. Barret, however, was not amused.

"Who the hell is that?! That ain't Cloud."

"Sephiroth," Tifa pleaded, "Stop."

Cloud noticed that Tifa was upset and shrugged, assuring her, "This is so stupid."

Tifa, in an attempt to keep herself together, smirked back at Cloud and said, "It's just an illusion. Don't worry about it."

"You're the one worrying," Cloud said, but his face went wide in shock as the world was consumed once again by blinding white light – and Tifa knew that he was genuinely scared.


	105. Sephiroth’s Illusion: Nemesis III

I would love some feedback on this chapter, since it's crucial! Thanks a million! -Mr. Ite

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 25**

**Sephiroth's Illusion: Nemesis III**

They were consumed in the blinding whiteness as the sounds of the wind faded back into their ears, but only for a moment – the sound slowly morphed into the sound of flames.

"What's next?" Cloud asked.

Tifa couldn't control her anger and fear, "Stop it already!"

The red of the flames were the first thing they could see, and Barret sighed, "This is bad, it's jes' like Corel."

The flames were bright but they couldn't feel the heat from them, nor could they feel the cold of the wind that was surely whipping them about in reality – they seemed suspended between temperatures.

Nibelheim was ablaze. Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen, but all over the town they could see what was in his wake. Massive fireballs rose from the ground and twirled into the air, crashing through the rooftops to burn the civilians inside.

"This is what actually happened five years ago," Cloud said as a fireball exploded beside them – the flames didn't touch them. "But I bet it's not going to be me that comes out of the mansion. Sephiroth is probably going to try and show us another stupid illusion."

They waited a moment and the black-haired SOLDIER ran out of the mansion's great front doors as an enormous flame materialized in the dead thorns in the garden. The heat of the explosion knocked him back into the mansion, and the great sword on his back snapped out of its magnetic hold, grazing the skin of his right calf.

Springing back onto his feet, he ran out to the top of the staircase, unflinching from the wound in his calf.

"See?" Cloud asked, "What did I tell you?" There was something eerie about watching this scene – he could almost feel the same movements he had made five years ago – only they were being mimicked (and rather well) by the black-haired SOLDIER.

"Hey!" cried Zangan from the general store beside them and Cloud turned quickly to face him, "It's you! You're still sane, right?"

The young SOLDIER nodded, as was Cloud's wont. Barret noted that the story was happening to the letter exactly as Cloud had told it – only Cloud had been replaced by someone else.

"Then come over here and help me!" Zangan shouted, ignoring the three members of AVALANCHE. He was seemingly unscathed by the flames and crouched over a townsperson.

"Tifa…" muttered the townsperson, "Tifa…"

Sephiroth's massive fire summoning grew stronger as the steps to the Shinra mansion went up in flames, and the young SOLDIER had to leap from the top to the bottom to avoid getting burned. He landed at the bottom, safely in town square beside Cloud. Nearly everything in their uniform was the same – down to the ridiculous purple dungarees. Cloud only had the one iron pauldron while the mysterious SOLDIER had both of the proper set. He looked more professional – more like a Shinra employee.

One of the MPs was lying by the water tower. He didn't seem dead, he was moving slightly. Twitching. Not critical, just a little bruised up, but his eyes were wide and he was muttering the name of Sephiroth repeatedly.

"Sephiroth did it," Zangan shouted, as if it needed to be said. "They call him a hero but he's nothing but a monster, a homicidal maniac!"

"I'll check to general store and the west. You, check the east houses!" Zangan shouted.

Immediately, the black-haired SOLDIER ran into the house adjacent to town square. It was the house of Cloud's childhood.

"Why would someone else run into my house?" Cloud laughed, but saw Tifa's eyes brimmed with tears, "What's wrong, Tifa? As long as we know it's an illusion, then there's nothing to be afraid of, is there?"

Barret ran up to the man at the Inn. "Hey!" he shouted, "Are you alright?" There was no response from the patient and Barret tried resting his hand on the victim – and saw that his hand went right through it. "Damn! So it was an illusion!"

"Right. Get back over here before you run off the edge of the cliff," Cloud ordered.

Barret lumbered back towards them.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted, and his vigour made Tifa jump. "I know you're listening, and I know what you're trying to say! You're trying to say that I wasn't in Nibelheim five years ago, right?"

With a flash like the bulb of a camera, Sephiroth appeared at the top of the stairs – and a loud, gong echoed throughout the dying city from a distant school tower. The flames grew higher, as Nibelheim's last standing houses collapsed. Sephiroth stood in the middle of the flames, but they did not seem to touch him. It was he who was wielding this destruction. The power he had used to protect this town had now become its demise, and he stood at the very top, smirking at him. His glowing green eyes pierced through theirs as if he stared into their souls. He began to trot down the stairs slowly, the fire curling around him – dancing madly with him.

"I see you finally understand," Sephiroth smiled, noticing them for the first time.

"What you're trying to do is confuse me, right?" Cloud laughed, "But even showing me these things won't affect me. I remember the intense heat of the flames, on my skin, in my heart."

"Oh, is that right?" Sephiroth asked, reaching the bottom of the staircase, "You are just a puppet. You have no heart and cannot feel any pain. How can there be any meaning in the memory of such a being? What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion."

Cloud placed a hand on the hilt of his sword and moved up to Sephiroth slowly.

"Do you understand?" Sephiroth smiled.

"I don't want to understand," Cloud attempted to antagonize Sephiroth with those words, but he only succeeded in doubting himself even more. "But I want to ask you one thing. Why? Why are you doing this?"

With a flash and another clang of the school bell, Sephiroth had disappeared and reappeared between Tifa and Barret. Cloud's two compatriots scrambled to get back behind him. Sephiroth laughed wildly.

"I want to take you back to your real self," Sephiroth cackled, "The one who gave me the black materia that day. Who would have ever thought a failed experiment would prove so useful? Hojo would die if he knew."

Cloud stepped forward again, his grip loosening on the handle of the sword, "Hojo?! What does he have to do with me?!"

Sephiroth smiled wickedly, and his eyes flashed with malice, "Five years ago you were constructed by Hojo, piece by piece, right after Nibelheim was burnt. A puppet made up of vibrant Jenova cells, her knowledge, and the power of mako. An imcomplete Sephiroth-clone. Not even given a number… that is your reality."

Even the roar of the flames seemed to din.

"Cloud!" Tifa cried, "Don't listen to him! Cover your ears! Close your eyes!"

"What's wrong, Tifa? I'm not affected by it. I wasn't paying attention to him. Everything that Sephiroth says now is a lie."

"All that talk of Hojo constructing you is a lie," Tifa pleaded, more frightened than he, "Don't we have our memories together? Being kids together, starlit nights?"

Sephiroth laughed again and this time looked at Tifa. "Tifa, why are you worried and scared by my words? Hmm… shall I show everyone here what's in your heart?"

Tifa quickly turned away, her eyes closed tightly.

"You look like you're not feeling well," Sephiroth giggled, and with another terrifying flash he had disappeared to leave them alone in the flames.

The black-haired SOLDIER ran out of Cloud's childhood home and shook his head. He seemed nearly unaffected by the flames, "Sephiroth! This is too terrible!"

Tifa, Cloud and Barret were no longer paying attention to the illusion. Cloud looked at Tifa and asked, "Tifa, is Sephiroth right?"

Tifa looked back at him, at his eyes pleading for her to save him from the nightmare of reality. He had relied on her to back up his stories since she had found him in Midgar. His stories that confused her so – and how she now regretted nodding back then and saying "Yes, Cloud" when even she wasn't sure what he was.

"Cloud…" she started, but phlegm was clogging her throat – she found that she was choking on it – fighting back tears of horror and agony.

"Why are you so scared?" Cloud smiled, but already she could see he was starting to break, "Don't worry about me, I'm all right. No matter how confused I am, I'll never believe a word that Sephiroth says…

"It's true that sometimes I can't figure out who I am. There's a lot of things muddled up in my memories." His eyes seemed to glint in fear then, and he stammered, "But, Tifa… but you said 'Long time, no see, Cloud,' right?"

She recalled when he first came to in Midgar. She had used those words, she had nearly felt wrong using them – she wasn't even sure it was Cloud to begin with.

"Those words will always support me," he nodded, reassuring himself. She wanted to tell him that those words meant nothing – they had come from a confused young woman, nothing more. "I am the one you grew up with," Cloud smiled, "I'm Cloud Strife of Nibelheim. No matter how much I lose faith in myself, that is the truth. That's why you shouldn't be so scared. No matter what anyone else says to me, it's your attitude that counts."

The black-haired SOLDIER raced into the fire and out of Nibelheim and they were left alone with the smoking cadavers strewn across town square. Tifa swallowed and uttered the words she had feared all year.

"No," she said, "that's not true, Cloud…"

Cloud shook his head sadly, "What's not? Aren't I the same Cloud you grew up with?"

"That's not what I meant… I don't know how to say it… Cloud, I need some time! Just give me a little time!"

With another pulse of light Sephiroth was back – everyone but Tifa turned to face him.

"Cloud," Sephiroth said, his voice condescending and pitiful, "Don't blame Tifa. The ability to change one's looks, voice and words – that is the power of Jenova. Inside of you, Jenova has merged with Tifa's memories, creating you. Out of Tifa's memory… a boy named Cloud might've just been a part of them."

"Cloud," Tifa cried, "please don't think right now!"

"_Think_, Cloud!" Sephiroth prodded, "Oh, excuse me, you never had a name!" He cackled furiously.

Cloud shook his head, "Shut up, Sephiroth!"

"You still don't understand?" Sephiroth smiled, "Well then, do you remember the picture that we took before we headed for Mount Nibel?" he turned to Tifa, "You remember, right?"

"Sephiroth, please, stop!" tears streamed down her face.

"There is no way he would know," Sephiroth laughed, "Now, what happened to that picture?"

Sephiroth searched the ground for the picture, but Cloud remembered where it was. Feeling confidence in his memories, he walked up to the half-body of Augustus and plucked the five copies of the photograph from his clutched hand.

"You should take a look at it," Sephiroth smiled, "It turned out pretty good."

"Cloud," Tifa said, "Don't…"

"I… should be in the picture. Even if I'm not in there… don't worry. This is just an illusionary world Sephiroth made up."

Flipping the photograph to see it, Cloud saw what he was expecting. Sephiroth stood on the far right, masamune in hand and a bemused look on his face – used to being photographed. Tifa was in the middle with her straw hat and high boots. The black-haired SOLDIER was on the far left, his arms crossed looking strong and proud – hardly the way Cloud had felt when the camera bulb had exploded in his vision.

"Just as I thought," Cloud nodded, "This picture is a fake. The truth is in my memory. Five years ago, I came back to Nibelheim to inspect the reactor. I was sixteen. The town hadn't changed at all. What did I do…? Oh yeah… I visited my mother's house and spent most of the day there. Yeah, I went into Tifa's room. There, I – I played the piano! I read the letter on her desk! I looked in the drawers! I spent the night and went to the reactor in Mount Nibel. I was excited about it – it was an odd mission, a chance to prove I was worth being First Class in SOLDIER..."

Suddenly, Tifa felt terrifyingly alone as something in Cloud died – the same something that Sephiroth had lost five years ago. He twitched his neck and shook his head as if to shoo away a bug.

"SOLDIER, First Class?" he asked himself, and shook his head more violently as if doing so would help his memory, "SOLDIER? When did I enter SOLDIER?" He was clutching his head now, trembling, "How did I join SOLDIER?"

Tifa ran to him as he collapsed onto the ground, "Why… why can't I remember?" Before Tifa could hold him, he had already risen to one knee.

"I'm… I'm…" he whimpered, twitching frequently – as if fighting off an attack on his brain. "That's right. I didn't have to worry about it because I was…"

There was silence for a long time as the flames died down – the northern crater began to fade back into existence, interweaving with the illusion of Nibelheim.

"Cloud?" Tifa asked.

"I'm all right, Tifa," Cloud smiled, but there was something broken there, something Tifa found all too familiar, "I'm all right."


	106. Book 4: Reunion

**Author's Note: **_Hey guys! It's my birthday so I thought I would post the end of Book IV! I hope you enjoy! I'm off to Paris until the new year but I'll start uploading the fifth and final book as soon as I get back. Thanks a million for all the great reviews! Keep 'em coming! Bonne Lecture!_

_-Mr. Ite _**  
**

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book IV**

**The Promised Land**

* * *

**Chapter 26**

**Reunion**

Rufus Shinra expected the slick blue substance underneath his feet to be ice, but it held fast to him and it shone too brightly to be just cold water. He entered the crystal sphere in the very centre of the crater – the walls were made of the same hard blue substance. High above him, as a lid to the strange crystal structure – natural branches grew from the crystal and amalgamated on the middle where they held a great, large, huge materia crystal in place – made of the same materia as the walls.

Scarlet brushed past him, gaping with all of her soul at their surroundings. She walked quickly – the tails from her dress flapped furiously behind her. He hand was other her mouth as she made an assortment of sounds. "That's amazing!" she exclaimed through her hand, "It's all materia!"

"The outside is rich with mako energy," Rufus couldn't help but get caught up in her energy, "The inside is a treasure trove of materia. This truly is the Promised Land."

"There is no such thing as the Promised Land," Hojo muttered, entering the materia sphere, "It's a myth, an old wives tale. It's utterly ridiculous."

"This matches everything I've been told about the Promised Land," Rufus said, and in order to maintain a sense of normalcy among Scarlet, Rude and Heidegger, he grinned broadly and targeted Hojo, "It's that kind of dullness that makes you a second-rate scientist."

Hojo seemed to take those words to heart and he slinked away against a wall of materia. When he touched it – the wall seemed to tremble. The entire materia sphere began to tremble.

"What's happening?" Rufus asked.

"There is something moving inside the wall!" Scarlet cried, and a great eye opened inside of the wall.

The eye was encased heavily with materia, but it was very clearly a great emerald green cat-like eye. When the eyelid moved, the materia seemed to ripple and accommodate it as if it was not solid crystal but a liquid. The eye blinked at them as the ground continued to tremble.

"What the hell is that?!" Heidegger shouted.

"Weapon," Hojo said, "So it really does exist. I didn't believe in it…"

"What does this mean?" Rufus asked.

"Weapon. Monsters created by the Planet. It appears when the Planet is in danger and reduces everything to nothingness – that's what was stated in Professor Gast's reports – a first-rate scientist."

"I've never heard of this report. Where is it?"

Hojo pointed to his head, "It's all here."

* * *

The black materia sat comfortably inside of Nanaki's bladed headdress, and the lupine beast lazed on the rocks.

"Do you think that Cloud, Tifa and Barret can really kill Sephiroth by themselves?" Yuffie asked.

"I doubt that's the point," Vincent sighed, "I think the point is we have to prevent Sephiroth from summoning Meteor – that's why they went ahead and we all stayed behind."

"It's hard to believe something so small is able to destroy the Planet," Nanaki mused, but he felt his head swim a little. When he shook his head, he found that everyone else had disappeared. After Vincent had finished his sentence – everyone had suddenly vanished. He stood on the rocks alone.

"What the?" he asked, "Where is everybody? Where am I? Don't leave me alone!"

Suddenly, Tifa ran towards him. "Red XIII!" she shouted, "I'm so glad you're here!"

"Tifa!" Nanaki smiled and ran to her, "Something is strange… where is everybody?"

"Everyone's waiting! Cloud's in trouble!"

"Please come!" Yuffie cried from far behind Tifa – inside the materia sphere, "Help us!"

"How long was I out for?" Nanaki asked, "I'm not sure I understand, but I'll go if you want me to!"

Nanaki bounded off as the illusion of Tifa faded into nothingness behind him. When the rest of the group picked themselves off of the ground, they looked around to find that Nanaki was suddenly gone.

* * *

The great eye had narrowed itself, slowly searching over them until it came to a stop on Hojo – it gave him a piercing stare that made even him cringe a little. Scarlet turned to Rufus.

"Mr. President," she said, "I have a bad feeling about this place."

"Perhaps we should return to the ship now," Rufus agreed, both announcing it and also gauging Hojo's expression to see his opinion on the matter. "We need to prepare for the inspection anyway."

With a sudden flash of light that frightened none of them, they suddenly found that they were not alone underneath the materia tree. Barret the Blackhearted had suddenly appeared beside Scarlet and – after looking around surprised for a moment – began to curl his upper lip at the woman. Rufus would have likened him to an irate dog had he not been so fixed on Cloud Strife, who's back end had appeared in front of him – his head held crookedly downwards as if concentrating intently on his right elbow. Hojo's eyes glistened at the appearance of these three. Rufus was more shocked than anything.

"Where did you come from?" he asked.

Cloud's head rose slowly up – while his back was turned to Rufus his head swivelled nearly all the way around. "Don't know," he said calmly. His head was eerily still as he swivelled his body around to face the president. There was something off about his eyes – they still glowed with mako infusion but somehow they seemed dead, eerily lifeless as if a very important piece of his soul had been lost. "It's going to get dangerous in here, you'd better get out while you still can and leave things to me."

Rufus batted a tuft of orange hair from his eyes. He felt the passion swell inside of him again. As he saw the cleanly thick white blade he recalled the splitting open of Dark Nation's head – brains, eyeballs and two half-tongues spattering the balcony of the sixty-ninth floor. How the pain had searing through him as the sword had given him the neatly thin scar across his hip that he now bore underneath his double breasted coat.

"Leave things to you?" Rufus laughed, "Surely I don't know what you mean."

"This is where the reunion is happening," Cloud said and shot a quick glance at Hojo, his morose, lifeless blue eyes glaring at the scientist behind Rufus. "This is where everything begins and ends."

Rufus turned to Hojo, who he could have sworn was salivating. The girl behind him – one of the five he had met his inauguration night – cried Cloud's name as if to get his attention. When Rufus looked back at Cloud, he noticed that he was already walking towards the mouth of the crystal cave – towards a bounding red creature that rushed inside. It was another one of the five Rufus had met. A creature like Dark Nation, who was intelligent enough to use spells. Hojo had done something to it, Rufus recalled.

"Cloud!" Nanaki announced as he entered, panting. "I came as soon as I could! I'm here to help you."

Tifa ran up beside Hojo and cried, "Cloud!"

"Ah yes, Nanaki," Cloud sighed, and his voice was wavering, almost as if he was holding back a sob, "How faithful you have been. Do you still have the black materia?"

Nanaki nodded fervently, at which point Hojo shuffled forward and Barret the Blackhearted trained his gun on the lot of them.

Cloud moved again towards the lupine beast, occasionally stopping to clutch his head – as if trying to silence deafening sounds. It was silent in the cave – only the echoing of their footsteps and the howling wind outside.

Hojo began to stifle a laugh as Cloud and Nanaki walked towards each other. Neither the beast nor Cloud seemed to notice anyone else – especially Tifa's continuing cries for them to stop. They both seemed helpless, controlled somehow.

"I'll take it from here," Cloud said, "Give me the black materia."

Nanaki, in a swift and practiced move, removed the black materia from his headdress and it rolled to a stop at Cloud's feet. As he bent over to pick it up, Tifa cried, "You can't hear my voice?!"

Nanaki twitched a little, then, and looked over quizzically in their direction. He seemed to see right through them, but his brow furrowed and he asked, "Are you all right, Cloud?"

Cloud nodded.

"Good," Nanaki smiled, "I was a little apprehensive holding this thing. Where are the others? Are they safe?"

"Thanks," Cloud said, and Rufus realized that neither of them knew what the other was saying anymore – they had both completely lost their minds.

"Leave the rest to me," Cloud repeated.

There was a flashing whiteness that filled everyone's vision, and Barret's gun trained on Rufus as they realized he had drawn his shotgun and fired. The spray shot had caught Nanaki square in the face and the beast's head reared back, the scar over his right eye splitting open and spraying blood onto the materia, which seemed to absorb the droplets.

Nanaki and Cloud seemed to be snapped from their trances. Nanaki brought his head back – he didn't seem too injured. In fact, he seemed healthier than he had before. His face was bleeding, but from his demeanor, he seemed more surprised than injured. He suddenly noticed everyone. "What?" the beast stammered. He looked at Hojo and they could see understanding drop through his body. "Oh no… what have I done?"

Cloud looked into his hand, where he clutched a black orb tightly.

"Wait, Cloud!" Tifa fell to her knees, sobbing, "Please! Just wait a little longer!"

Cloud looked back at her and smiled – the same deadness was in his eyes as before, but fresh tear streams were still visible down his high cheekbones and sallow, triangular jaw. He was certainly in the _form_ of Cloud, but Rufus realized that he no longer recognized the person that was within. "Everyone," he said, "Thanks for everything, and… I'm sorry." He slowly turned to each of them – even Scarlet and Rufus – and said, "I'm sorry" to everyone. Finally, he turned to the girl and bowed his head in shame, "Especially you, Tifa. I'm really sorry; I don't know what to say. You've always been so good to me. I never lived up to being 'Cloud.' Maybe one day you'll meet the real 'Cloud.'"

Tifa was holding her head in her hands and trembling, wailing in the most horrible way. Hojo cackled at the sight.

"Excellent!" exclaimed the scientist, "This is perfect! This means my experiment was a complete success! What number were you, hmm? Where is your tattoo?"

Without taking off his gloves, Cloud shook his head, "Professor Hojo… I don't have a number. You didn't give me one because you said I was a failed experiment."

The glint in Hojo's eye sparked out and his eyes almost became as dead as Cloud's, "You mean to say that only a failure made it here?"

"Please, professor. Give me a number. Have I not proven–"

"Shut up!" Hojo spat, "Miserable, miserly, meagre, measly failure! Get out of my sight!"

To everyone's surprise, Cloud did. After hunching in desolation, rolling his shoulders forward and dropping his head – his legs suddenly lifted off of the ground and he rose up through the air as if standing on an invisible lift.

When he saw that was defying gravity, Cloud slowly stretched out in all directions, both utterly confused and ecstatic at what was happening. Hojo seemed less than impressed.

As Cloud stretched out his arms wildly, he began to spin in the air above him and flew up to land upside-down on the branches. He perched like a bat and sat very quietly and still for a long time.

* * *

He found it quite comfortable to be perched so highly among the great magical branches of this mystical tree. Below him, he looked gleefully down at the humans and the beast – who were wildly looking back up at him.

"Who was that?" asked Rufus.

He glumly chortled at Rufus' failure to recognize him. Such was the power of Jenova. And such power.

"He's a Sephiroth clone I created," Hojo announced, albeit not proudly. "Five years ago - after the real Sephiroth died. Jenova cells and mako, with my knowledge and skills, have been combined with science and nature to bring him to life. I'm not wild about the failure part, but the Jenova Reunion Theory has now been proven. You see, even if Jenova's body is dismembered, she still lives, and will eventually become one again. That's what is meant by Jenova's Reunion. I have been waiting for the Reunion to start. Five years have passed, and now the clones have begun to return. I thought the clones would begin to gather at Midgar where Jenova is stored. And a few did, I can recall some of them emerging in the slums. But my predictions were not entirely correct. Jenova itself began to move away from the Shinra headquarters. But being the genius that I am, I soon figured it out. You see it was all Sephiroth's doing. Sephiroth is not just content to diffuse his will into the Lifestream; he wants to manipulate the clones himself."

'_Yes,'_ he thought, _'Sephiroth had Jenova's head.'_

"I wondered where the clones were going, but I was never able to figure it out."

'_I couldn't figure it out either.'_

"The one thing I did know was that Sephiroth was at their final destinations."

'_I wasn't pursuing Sephiroth – I was being summoned by him. All the anger and hatred I bore him made it impossible for me to ever forget him. That and what he gave me.'_

"But when I remembered the original place where Jenova had crashed – this is where the Lifestream gathers to heal the wound created by Jenova two thousand years ago. This is where she would return – this is where her cells would go once they went into the Lifestream. So naturally, Sephiroth's body had to be here as well. And look, all of Jenova's cells are here in the crater – even Red XIII, and the failure. Now she is all here and back together again – the experiment is a complete success!"

"Sephiroth?!" he suddenly shouted and the humans below him craned their necks up to look at him once more. He didn't care about them. He needed to find his master. "Sephiroth? I'm here, and I've brought you the black materia. Show yourself to me!"

As if answering, the great crystal at the very centre of the roof made of branches fell from their clutches and was stopped after a metre fall by a few straggling branches.

Inside the crystal of pure materia was the upper half of a body, obviously lifeless but he knew the cells were still there. Clutched in Sephiroth's hand was the head of Jenova, the source of the reunion – with eyes as shadowed as the space between stars, she screamed silently with a wide open grin, toothless, and as big as the universe, ready to swallow. Jenova was looking at him. He looked back, powerless to look away. He didn't notice Rufus and Scarlet flee from the crystal cave below him. He could only concentrate on Jenova's wide, gaping eyes. Suddenly, he felt his hand start to move. He could only watch as his arms rose up and extended the black materia towards the crystal orb.

"Did you see that?!" cried Hojo far below him, "It's Sephiroth! So he _is_here! This is perfect! Both Jenova's reunion and Sephiroth's will! They won't be diffused into the Lifestream but gathered here!"

Tifa spoke next and her voice muddled his head. It was so familiar – Jenova had made it that way, hadn't she? Fabricated from her memories, of course her voice would be familiar. "Hojo!" she screamed, "What are you so happy about?! You know what this means, don't you?! Cloud has the black materia! They're going to summon Meteor! Every single person is going to die!"

'Cloud' had the black materia? He knew that the orb clutched in his hand was indeed the black materia. The name seemed foreign to him, like a dream he had just awoken from. Her voice nagged at something still in the back of his head. Why couldn't Jenova just set him free of it?

Rufus had run back inside. "Whatever I say now is too little, too late," the president announced, "We must evacuate! I want you all to come with me; there is still so much I want to know. Quickly now, to the safety of the airship!"

They began to rush out from beneath him like scattering ants. Nanaki looked in his direction and shouted, "Cloud! No!"

Nanaki had sense enough, a defiance of Jenova's power? It was surely because he had been something before the experiments, not a cacophony of spare parts fused together by science to create what he was.

But something still nagged him back towards the ground and he felt his grip on the branches falter and he slowly began to float towards them. Headaches increased. Mother was angry with him. She attacked his brain for defying her. Tifa reached up a tender hand and called, sweetly, "Cloud..."

The headaches killed him – there was a clashing of wills. He had no will of his own, was that the result of being a failure? Developing a will so strong that he had to be manipulated in order to achieve Mother's goals?

He floated back up to the crystal cocoon where Sephiroth and Jenova welcomed his presence warmly. He floated beside the cocoon as they escaped beneath him.

He faced Sephiroth and felt the weight of the buster sword on his back. He had waited for this moment for five years – his entire existence he wagered. He paused in front of his nemesis. But the last thing on his mind was murder. He would not do what he came here to do. He would do what he was brought here for.

As he reached out and touched the cocoon with the black materia, it suddenly became liquid and his arm slid through easily – the condensed spirit energy sank into his skin and gave him the direst pleasure. As his arm released the stone, it began to glow a dark, void-like blue – and the cave began to shake.

The magic tug that came from the crystal orb completely pulled him out of his body and he felt himself fly into the cocoon – along with every other soul around him. For an eternity, the Lifestream swirled around the black materia as the physical world began to melt away.

The branches around him exploded into water and the walls were also sucked into the cocoon – it was drawing everything into it.

And there was a distinct sensation of falling before the light disappeared and he fell into blissful darkness, knowing that he was a success.

* * *

Tifa stood on the passenger deck of the Shinra luxury airship as they pulled away from the rocky ground – which crumbled and flew off towards the materia tree. The whole of the ground was blasting away – the weak shell above the endless hole in the Planet was torn to pieces and a pillar of light exploded from where Cloud had last been sighted.

Yuffie and Barret gasped at the sight, but Tifa was frozen in shock. The idea of his survival had been now eradicated as there was nothing left where there had once been a brilliant materia cave.

The magic tug still pulled at them. They could feel powerful magical energy exerting from the pillar of light – which continued up into space and beyond their capacity to see. The wisps of glowing green light swirled around the pillar – now a deep blue.

Suddenly, explosions of energy pulsed outwards from the centre of the crater, and they hit the airship like shockwaves. The whole vehicle rocked and Tifa steadied herself on the deck.

Below them – the steady ground further away from the centre of the crater began to crack as well – everything popped with electrical energy. Lightning cracked in the cloudless sky.

Something flashed in the darkness – it was the great eye that had been in the materia cave – it was now accompanied by another eye atop a monstrous beaked head. The creature was the colour of Sapphire and with a flick of its illuminated, fleshy tail it flew off into the distance at incredible speed.

From beneath the crumbling rocks, another monstrous clawed hand reached skyward, grabbing a city-sized chunk of land and tossing it aside as it emerged from the abyss – with great broad diamond-coloured shoulders that extended far beyond its arms. It seemed to be made of diamond and stone. Extending its hands to look at them (as if to notice them for the first time) the beast gave a terrible roar from a glowing red mouth that made everyone on the passenger deck – AVALANCHE and Shinra alike – clutch their ears.

When a third monster rose out of the abyss, as black as her hair, Tifa realized that the term 'Weapon' was the name for multiple entities.

The beast standing before them was the only Weapon that had caught notice of the airship, which looked like a toy compared to it. It looked down at the ship with glowing red eyes and opened its black maws lined with black teeth and gave another ear-shattering roar.

Behind the black weapon arose another broad shouldered monster as green as emeralds and another with long, spindly arms and scaled with rubies.

They had nearly cleared the crater when the monstrous black Weapon (which looked like an oversized dragon) rocketed towards the sky. As it passed, its long, thick tail broadsided the airship and the whole vehicle tipped onto its side. Everyone was able to hold on but Tifa, who was too stunned by the events that had just transpired that she lost her grip and was knocked about on the floor as the airship began to right itself.

She rolled along the wooden floor of the exterior deck, her eyes barely catching glimpses of the five Weapon streaking off into the sky before she collided with the guard rail on the other side of the deck and the bars, with a violent smack, robbed her of consciousness.

**End of Book IV  
**


	107. Foreward to Book 5: Weapon

**Foreward**

I suppose I've already spoiled you by telling you that there is a Book V since the beginning. I did not tell the people reading this for the first time. Near the end of Book IV, it seemed all the ducks were in a row, and that there would only be two volumes in this Project. Mwa ha! They were wrong. Truthfully, I organized the books to simulate how I felt on my first playthrough of Final Fantasy VII. I thought the game would be over near the end of Book I. You have a small little story about some rebels and an evil conglomerate, and the rebels go to the big tower and kill the big bad guy, the end. When that story became a prelude for a larger, more complex quest about identity and faith, it absolutely blew me away. Hopefully the very existence of Volume II evoked that feeling for some of my readers. This is the most important reason why I grouped the last three books together. Sure, Books II and III were their own entities but were not plausible end-points by any means. They were stepping stones on the way to Book IV's false ending, an ending you stumbled upon not too long ago.

Yes, and now you've finished the prelude to another complete adventure - one last adventure.

Welcome to the only book in Volume III. "WEAPON."

Enjoy

-Mr. Ite.


	108. Book 5: The First Rain in Midgar

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**The First Rain in Midgar**

'_Light...'_

The light shone right through her eyelids.

'_Cloud always hated bright lights.'_

When she opened her eyes, she was staring at a bulb. "Bright," she moaned, her lips peeled off eachother, as if she hadn't spoken in years. She closed her eyes again.

"Tifa? You awake?"

The voice drifted across her mind like a gentle caress. She was dazed to be sure, but she recognized the tender roughness of it. It spoke of Seventh Heaven, of the quiet afterhours of December when they would talk until the world awoke, never realizing the difference between day and night, dark and light. "Barret?"

"Damn, I thought you was never gonna wake up."

She opened her eyes again, the light filled her vision, she couldn't escape it. The lamp hung right over her like the sun she had avoided for five years. It seemed to mock her with it's brazen brilliance, burning itself into her eyes, penetrating through them and into her brain like the tip of a sword.

"Where am I?"

"On a table," came the reply.

"Oh," she hummed, uninterested.

When she sat up, the brightness dimmed and she was staring at a wall made of metal. As her eyes adjusted to the otherwise dark room, she caught Barret sitting in a shadowed corner. His huge form put visible stress on the spindly chair.

"I'm hungry," she voiced her thoughts.

"You were in a coma. For seven days," Barret explained much too calmly.

"A coma?" A seven-day coma. Her _third_ seven-day coma. Three weeks of her twenty-odd years living were spent in the void. What did she get up to, on those retreats from the world? The groggy feeling of coming back to life was almost familiar now, even though it had been five years since her last coma, and a few more since the first. She wished briefly that she had never woken up from that first deep sleep, and that all the horrors she had seen since were only the machinations of a dreaming mind.

She looked at Barret and saw that he had a monstrous bushy beard. He looked at her with tired eyes. "Did you forget?" he asked.

She thought back. It was all real.

"I fell over," she said, "on Rufus' airship. Something hit us."

Barret stood and walked to the metal wall, contemplating pushing the green button in front of him.

"That's not all," he said. "The thing that hit us..."

"Weapon?"

"They all over the place, Tifa. Rampaging. Rufus has been fightin' em. You gotta hand it to him, he's really fightin' for his people. Hate to say it, but he's got guts."

There was a pause as Tifa cracked her knuckles. They ached. She feared that the week had made caused her limbs to atrophy. It didn't seem to be the case, but she felt as tired as Barret looked. This was not the rest they deserved, after travelling so long and losing so much. To lie on a table with a gleaming light in her eyes, in a metallic room without a cot, Barret sitting squatly in a chair too small for him. No windows to be seen or seen through.

Barret looked deeply into Tifa's eyes. "Why don't you ask? About him, I mean."

"...Because I'm scared."

Barret looked at the wall. "Yeah, me too."

"So he's dead, then."

"No one has seen or heard from him since the crater fell on top of him. He's been pronounced dead."

"Pronounced?"

"Yeah," Barret said, "Rufus has gone public with the whole thing, made a big report on it."

"How did he...?"

"We all helped him," Barret said. "Its best people know. The truth, I mean."

"...What about Sephiroth?"

"The Promised Land has been blocked."

"Blocked? What do you mean?"

"Sephiroth's got this giant barrier of light around the whole damn crater. Him an' Jenova are inside, doin' what they do. Rufus is thinkin' about what to do. We should be the ones to destroy 'em, but we ain't got time."

"Time?"

Barret paused, and then pushed the button on the wall with his gun-arm. "See for yourself."

The metal wall folded noisily up into the ceiling, like a rusty garage door. Behind the metallic blinds, panes of spotless glass gazed over the Sea. They were in Junon. Tifa stood from the table and walked right up towards the glass. She gazed up. There in space, hanging over the Planet like a great red lamp was a rock.

* * *

Clouds peeled back and for the first time ever in Midgar, the people could see the sky.  
All along the top plate, everyone looked up.

It happened so quickly, not many in their homes had the time to get to the windows, but for a brief moment, the moment that the clouds blasted apart, sun shone on the top plate.

And then it began to rain. It rained fire on the citizens of Midgar.

The buildings on the top plate were not prepared for rain of any kind. There were no onnings with which to shelter oneself. There were no umbrellas, as if they would have helped.

Small meteorites pelted the asphalt; soon the roads were checkered with smoking holes. They went right through the roofs of cars, some drivers leapt to safety as their vehicles exploded. Some were not so lucky.

All along the streets, people ran, screaming, being struck down by bits of Meteor.  
Children cried, holding their legs as the burning rocks caught on their pants, and soon the fire swallowed them. Their parents had all abandoned them, running for dear life to find a doorway, any building to give them a place to hide.

The top levels of buildings were not safe. They whipped through the ceiling and into the cubicle farms, catching on files and computers and the ties of workers. Many ran to the elevator, to find that the ropes were on fire and snapping. There were no stairs.

Off-duty doctors were using materia in their kits to create barriers of ice to catch the meteorites, but to no avail. As soon as the ceilings of silver-blue appeared in the air above a terrified pedestrian – they would be swallowed in flames as chunks of molten rock burst through and crushed the person underneath.

SOLDIER was nowhere to be found.

* * *

"It is in the Planet's nature to defend itself," Bugenhagen began, "Since the dawn of time, it has continually changed and created things to preserve its integrity as a lifeform – changes were made to correct the wrongdoings against it. When the weight of the world was too heavy, it shifted and spread. When its Spirit Energy became stagnant, the Lifestream began – swirling around beneath the Planet's surface. When vegetation and growth began to decay, the Planet begat the Cetra to nurture it. When the Calamity arrived, the Planet rushed to heal the wound. When the Calamity spread, the Planet begat Weapon to destroy. Unfortunately, the Planet's will was so strong that the Cetra learned to destroy before Weapon could be born. The Calamity was sealed and Weapon never stirred, but the knowledge of destruction led the Cetra to become humans – to stray from their delicate purpose in the fragile ecosystem and destroy and create for their own purposes."

Cosmo Candle flickered a little brighter – another elder had woken up. The sun was coming over the mountains, the light was abetted by the glow of Cosmo Candle and from Meteor. Morning was here and Bugenhagen had not slept that night – it had become somewhat of a habit that week.

"Who would think that those descended from the Cetra would cause the destruction of the Planet? Hoo hoo."

* * *

Godo rolled on the balls of his feet, watching the fish swim before him. The room was almost all pond, with enough floor to walk from one paper door to the other. He was in the perfect centre of the room, facing one half of the aquarium and turning has back on another. Such was the way of life, he mused.

The fish dawdled in circles before him, occasionally nipping at the surface, devouring some unseen organism. They rarely interacted with each other. They simply floated back and forth inside of the room.

It was no surprise when one of the doors slid open. Godo had heard the intruder long before he had approached this sanctuary of his house. The clicking of shoes on the wooden floor was a dead giveaway from the start. Naïve, weren't they? Shinra dogs.

"Godo Kisaragi," came the professional voice. The passage of wind into the room from behind the Turk disturbed Godo's long moustache.

"Please close the door," he said calmly, still staring at the fish. The intruder did as he asked, closing the two of them inside the room alone. Save the fish who continued their dawdling unhindered.

"For a Turk, you are not very quiet."

"Maybe I wanted you to know I was coming," reasoned the Turk.

Godo raised his eyebrows at that prospect, but his eyes were still on the pond. "I had not considered that. I appreciate the courtesy. I had a wonderful, final, meditation just now."

There was silence in the room now, only the gentle lapping of water between the bamboo and wood that made up the walls.

"Koi," Godo began. "Koi are known to live for centuries. These organisms are older than me, and they will outlive us both, I'm sure."

"You have an optimistic view on the status of life on the Planet."

"I would say you have a very pessimistic view of the immediate future. The world we know has been unravelling at the seams for a long time, long before you were born. Either Meteor is the final result, or it will be just another bad thing to happen in an ever changing world. Look around at Wutai. Many would say that it has lost its life, that it is a dead kingdom. My daughter fights to restore it to its old ways – the glorious days before the war. I believe that Wutai is not dead, or dying. It has simply changed. Changed into something less desirable for us, it maybe has. But who but the gods can say what is _best_? The city of Kor is ruins now, but you see the nature that has grown in its place and realize that it is not dead land. It is simply changed land. These Koi were here when Kor thrived and Wutai was glorious. And look, amidst the ruins and dishonoured land, the Koi still live. Leviathan is the god of water, and water brings life. Despite all the change, Leviathan blesses Wutai with his gift of long life. It is the reason why so many of us become Orunai."

"I'm sure," said the Turk, "A real shame when their lives are cut short."

"You are referring to Tseng," Godo smiled faintly. "He was a good man, full of ideals that he needed to compromise for his work."

"We all make sacrifices."

Godo finally turned to his killer. "You know nothing of sacrifice."

With a silenced gunshot, Godo's body fell slack and he crumpled forward into the pond. The Turk waited until she was sure that no one was coming to investigate the loud splashing noise that Godo had made. There was so much silence. Not even the creaking of floorboards underneath bare feet. No one had heard.

Elena exhaled as she holstered her gun. She turned and walked out of the royal mansion and into the streets of Wutai.

* * *

The top of the Shinra building, all pearl and ivory, was singed with flame, but not penetrated. On the very top floor, Reeve and Heidegger stood together watching the chaos rain down on the top plate. They both stood in awe, looking up every once in a while to the great red rock that hung overhead. Both wondering what in the hell they were going to do with their city.

"How soon will it get here?" Reeve asked, knowing that the symphony of fire was a prelude compared to the destruction Meteor would produce.

"We can't know for sure before we gauge its size. It hasn't changed size all week. It could be as long as half a year, or as short as a few weeks," Heidegger sighed, "Maybe less. This is the second meteorite rain since its appearance. Nibelheim is wasted. It's not worth it to try and keep the peace anymore. We're all doomed."

"That kind of thinking will never lead anywhere!" Reeve snapped, "What would you think of yourself if AVALANCHE saved the Planet?"

"AVALANCHE?" Heidegger frowned, "They're the enemy. I would rather die than be saved by them."

"They're not too fond of you either," Reeve returned – and this seemed to get to Heidegger. The old general pulled his eyes away from the continuing destruction and looked at Reeve. Reeve stared right back into Heidegger's fat face and continued. "How would you feel if while you were hiding in a tower, prophesising doom, Cloud and the others were doing what you were so afraid of—"

"Cloud Strife is dead!" Heidegger spat, "The rest will be soon."

"What?" Reeve asked.

"Rufus is going to have them executed, for causing all of this."

"Wh-What the hell? That doesn't make any sense! We've all been allies for the last seven days! Rufus knows that no one but Sephiroth caused Meteor – no matter what he tells the public! No one but us caused the Planet to unleash Weapon upon our cities. AVALANCHE is totally innocent."

"Innocents?" Heidegger laughed, "Gyaa haa. You think the bombings of two reactors were innocent? Hell, one reactor explosion killed--"

Just then, Heidegger trailed off, he looked up at the sky again. Reeve's eyes were angrily fixed on the old general, but when he heard the rumbling, he looked up.

The biggest piece of rock yet was falling from the sky. They watched it fall right into a reactor.

The shockwave from the explosion shook the glass in front of Rufus' desk, and Reeve felt himself stumble back.

"What in the hell?!" Reeve cried. They had just finished rebuilding the North Reactor.

"Shut off all the reactors!" Heidegger was shouting into the intercom. "I don't care how, just do it!"

Anna, Rufus' secretary, was under her desk and did not hear Heidegger's order.

The rain of fire stopped, and Reeve and Heidegger looked at the city in near ruin.

"Pick a side, Reeve." Heidegger sighed.

"We're all on the same side," Reeve said, "The human side."

"And you'd forgive the bombings, the killings, the war that they started because they gave us information?"

Reeve was silent for a long time. "No. There is unresolved justice to be had."

"Now you're talking," Heidegger said. "The helicopter wasn't hit. I'm going to Junon to watch the execution."

Reeve nodded. "I'm coming too. It's a historic day: the end of AVALANCHE."

They stepped out onto the smoking helipad, and before getting in, they both took one last glance at the ravaged metropolis. The city would survive, of course. Midgar always survived. But they both knew that such terror was exactly what Rufus had wanted in the people, and now he had gotten his wish. What was arising sixty-nine stories below them, above the cries of pain and sorrow, the sirens and gushing firehoses - was also a feeling, like the bubbling of rebellion seething up through the small flames and chaos below. To their disgust and horror, looking at the top plate suddenly felt like looking at the slums. The thinning pillars which held up Shinra's authority were ebbing, faith in Shinra Incorporated was wavering, and neither of them were sure an execution was enough.


	109. Book 5: The Earth Toned Cloak

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**The Earth-Toned Cloak**

The orange locks of hair once again hung rebelliously and directly in Rufus' line of vision. He violently batted at them. They flipped back and landed where he wanted, but moments later they disregarded his comfort and fell back to stroke along his cheek.

Through the corridor he marched urgently like a white fireball. He was given a wide birth – MPs even veered to the side to avoid touching his wayward white overcoat, which had been tattered at the hems during his trip to the Northern Crater.

Since his episode at what the Planet now knew as "The Promised Land," Rufus had been regarded as somewhat invincible. After surviving an encounter with both Cloud Strife and all six Weapons at once, he had completely secured his position as worthy world leader in the eyes of the public. Those who adored him were elated at the news of his survival – those who hated him feared him more. Either way, Rufus was back in his element. His passion was back, settled in his hatred for Cloud Strife who had summoned Meteor (in part, but the rest of the world didn't need to know that).

Stepping up to the door, he entered the lock code on the door. Three, Two, Seven, Five. Or D-A-R-K, the first name of his late panther, killed last month by Cloud. Where the hell was he, anyway?

The door hissed open and Rufus stepped inside. Tifa and Barret stood at the window, staring forlornly at Meteor.

"Here you are," Rufus said, "I thought Cloud would show up to save you all. Professor Hojo wanted to see him as well."

Tifa turned around, "What are you going to do with him, if you find him?"

"Sephiroth's alter ego?" Rufus chuckled, but then Tifa was blocked from his sight by a clump of orange wagging strings in front of his eyes. He stroked his comb-over back in place, trying not to clench his jaw.

"Meteor has been summoned," he said, glancing briefly out the window, making sure it was still there. "Essentially, it's all but over now."

"So there's no need to keep us here?" Barret asked.

"I have one more task for you," Rufus said, and if the abandoned God himself had provided excellent timing, Heidegger walked into the room, his arms filled with empty shackles and chains.

"Mr. President," Heidegger announced, "The preperations for the execution are complete."

"Execution?!" Barret shouted, "What're ya gonna get by executin' us?"

"You are going to be executed for causing this situation," he fixed the hair in his face. "The people will feel better as long as someone is punished."

"I take back whatever praise I had for this jackass!" Barret shouted.

"Well," hair in his face, "Enjoy your last few moments together."

As Heidegger tied their arms behind their backs, Rufus left the room, feeling quite dissatisfied with himself.

* * *

Two MPs were led into the room and motioned for Barret and Tifa to follow. Resigning herself to defeat, it seemed, Tifa followed without question. Barret was a little harder to convince, he struggled a little before the MP cocked his semi-automatic machine gun. He moved into the next room with Heidegger at his side. Heidegger was big, but Barret towered over him. The next room was a large office – it was filled with computers. At the far end, Rufus stood against a wall of glass that reminded Barret of the top of the Shinra building. _'This musta been his office 'fore he became President,'_ Barret realized. Heidegger strolled up towards him as they were led out of the office and down a large staircase. 

At the centre of the hall below was a massive golden statue of Sephiroth – dated six years ago after he had returned home a hero. Below the statue lay a glass entombment with a body inside. As Barret passed it, he stopped to look at the plaque.

CATHAL SHINRA

The old president was in the airtight glass coffin – wearing his crimson business suit. The hole that the masamune had cut through had been repaired. His walrus moustache had been combed and his hair fixed. Towering above him was the golden statue of Sephiroth wielding the sword that cut him. Sephiroth had a look of patriotic triumph on his face. Barret shook his head and wondered if Rufus had realized why he had put the body there – or if he had convinced himself that everything was Cloud's fault, just like he was telling the whole world.

The MP prodded Barret along and they moved through a long corridor into a room filled with chairs, there was only one man sitting in the auditorium, he was grotesquely fat and completely concealed behind a brown cloak.

Cameras around the room, each with their own operator, were pointed at Scarlet, who stood at a crimson, professional looking podium at the end of the room, the dress, matching her namesake, blended with the massive Shinra tapestry draped on the wall behind her.

"Are we rolling?" Scarlet asked, and when a nod answered, she pointed to Barret and said, "These are the ones who brought this madness onto the world!"

"The hell are these people?!" Barret spat.

"We," Scarlet giggled, "will be broadcasting your miserable deaths on live international television."

The man in the earth-toned cloak stood, and limped towards Scarlet with a microphone in hand. A reporter, it looked like.

"Scarlet," he asked, "Why a public execution in this day and age?"

"With the chaos surrounding the Meteor reports," Scarlet explained, her rehearsed speech, "perhaps the greatest tragedy the Planet has ever faced. The entire human race has been threatened by the actions of AVALANCHE, and lest we forget early January, when their bomb-a-day escapade not only destroyed two reactors in Midgar, but also wiped out two entire cities and cost the world millions of lives. For two months they have been out of our grasp, but finally someone can pay for the damage caused to innocent people."

"You make me sick," Tifa said, and a camera swung to look at her.

* * *

Twenty metres below, inside a derelict mansion in the Junon slums, Priscilla Webb and her recently widowed grandfather saw a familiar face on the television. 

"That's Tifa!" Priscilla cried, "What's she doing on television?"

"Oh dear," Grampy Webb said, "Priscilla, we're turning off the television now."  
On the television screen, Scarlet walked into frame and grabbed Tifa by the upper arm, "We'll start with the girl."

"If you gotta do it!" Barret shouted, and Priscilla recognized him too, "Do me first!"  
Scarlet began to drag Tifa away, and the camera zoomed in on her as Barret continued to yell. Scarlet looked at the camera, "Are you getting this?" she asked, and the camera turned to look at the tear-filled Barret once more.

* * *

Their captor allowed them a small television set, and Elmyra Gainsborough and Marlene watched the news from their holding cell in the Shinra Headquarters. 

"Papa!" Marlene said, not intelligent yet enough to piece together what was going on, "Don't cry, papa. Tifa will be back. Where is Cloud? And the flower lady?"

"I don't know," Elmyra watched the screen, "It doesn't look like they've brought them in yet."

The camera followed Scarlet and Tifa into the gas chamber, where a single chair sat. Tifa was unlocked from her shackles and pushed towards the chair, but she did not fall into it. The guard pointed his gun at her and Scarlet walked up to the former terrorist, punching Tifa in the stomach and pushing her down into the chair. The guard locked her wrists and ankles into the chair.

And then, Elmyra could see Tifa's hope fading, as she struggled against the cuffs. The camera zoomed in on her pathos. And, as if adding insult to injury, a backhanded slap came in from offscreen and Tifa's face was knocked into a profiled shot.

"Stuck up bitch," came the offscreen voice of Scarlet. The camera zoomed out to get a full shot of the convict, and Scarlet, the cameraman and the guard left the room, the cameras still rolling on Tifa.

Scarlet returned and Barret had ceased his whimpering, standing, huge and cold, with his eyes fixated on Scarlet.

"Well now," Scarlet laughed, "Kya, ha, ha. The shows about to begin!"

And then the alarms went off.

_"Emergency! Emergency! Weapon is approaching. Repeat: Weapon is approaching."_

"Weapon!" Scarlet cried.

The guard and the cameramen dashed out of the room, and the cameras were knocked over.

* * *

Shera watched her television set as the cameras on Scarlet toppled over, and the only camera remaining to be aired was the one that had been propped up to showcase Tifa's death, and that was all Shera could see. The poor young woman, who had stolen her plane and her Cid away from her, she was still a good person, after all, in the Meteor reports, it said that Cid had joined AVALANCHE and was to be executed soon as well. 

Tifa struggled and began to cough.

* * *

The man in the earth-toned cloak limped up to Scarlet and pointed the microphone at her, "For our radio listeners," the reporter said, "How does it feel now, Scarlet?" 

Scarlet looked at the reporter with a recognition of some sort. "Don't I know you?" she asked, before something came blowing out from under the dark hood. To Barret, it looked like breath on a cold day, but when it hit Scarlet's face, her face contorted and every last muscle tensed up, bringing her arms right up to her face, as a dog would trying to stand on it's hind legs. And then, as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, she fell forward as the man in the brown cloak quickly dashed away from the small cloud of gas.

"What the hell?" asked Barret, "Sleeping gas?"

"Exactly," came the dark voice from under the hood. The figure turned to him and began to limp in his direction. His face was concealed in shadow, but there did seem to be some sort of glowing robotic mechanism over his left eye, a monocle of some kind. Barret tried to raise his gun arm, but it was bound behind his back.

"Who are you?" Barret asked.

"I work for Shinra," came the voice, "But you also know me personally."

"Shinra? Then why--"

"Let's just say I'm against capital punishment!" came the voice, but another voice said those words at exactly the same time. A happy voice that Barret _did_ recognize. It had the annoying twang and steely sound that had haunted his days from mid-January to mid-February. The brown cloak opened around the waist.

The grotesquely fat man was actually quite thin, and behind his cloak stood a small robotic cat, with a red cape and a pretentious golden crown on his head. He stepped forward – a clunky red plush shoe plodded on the steel floor.

"Besides," Cait Sith and the man in brown laughed, "I hate this broad."

Cait Sith and the man in brown walked behind Barret and he could feel the shackles being untied. When his arms were free, Barret turned around, but the cloaked man was gone, and there stood the happy figure of Cait Sith.

"Who are you, really?" Barret asked.

Cait Sith laughed, "Can't tell you, for my own safety. Are we going to save Tifa or not?"

Barret ran to the door to the gas chamber, but found that the gas had already started and it was on lockdown until the gas dissipated.

"It won't open!" he called to Cait Sith, who watched the door.

"We'll have to find another way," Cait Sith nodded and began towards the opposite door.

"You expect me to follow ya?!" Barret cried, "An' leave Tifa?! Don't you remember that yer the enemy?!"

* * *

Millions of viewers saw Tifa's eyelids flicker as the pain from the gas began to take hold. In Virennion, Paesis, Miaro and Slaskan heard Barret's constant rapping, and then his familiar voice. 

"Tifa! Are you all right?!" he shouted, perfectly audible to television audiences across the globe.

Tifa spoke weakly, but Barret heard her, "I can't hold my breath for much longer!"

"Hold as long as you can!" he cried, "We're going to find another way into the room!"

* * *

Johnny Fawlher, from his luxurious apartment in Costa del Sol, watched in horror as her eyes betrayed her words, and mournful fear swept over her. And then the gas finally took its toll, her consciousness slipped and she relaxed, limp on the chair. Millions of eyes were glued to the screen, watching as Tifa Lockheart, the gorgeous and deadly terrorist, fall deeper into blackout and closer to death. 


	110. Tifa's Recollection: Origins

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Tifa's Recollection : Origins**

_'He crouched in the fetal position on the soiled solid earth. I had seen that uniform before, many times. Hell, I had seen that colour hair before. It was the sword that got my attention. No one had a sword like that, ever since Sephiroth and the black haired SOLDIER came to Nibelheim five years ago._

_'I was on my way to the upper plate, I was out of rigamyde, which I needed to brew potions. And considering that Barret's bombings would be taking place soon, I figured I'd better start to brew potions for them. After all, one can't house a terrorist faction without a few scraped knees, can she?_

_'The creature was humanoid, and wet as a dog. He had obviously wandered in from outside, where I assumed it was raining, I can't recall any nearby pools or puddles in the slums. A man dressed as a SOLDIER, clutching the sword from five years ago, drenched and gargling at the train station._

_'The doorman for the trains approached him and asked if he was alright. The figure raised his head and mumbled something incoherent, and the doorman left. Something about the body reminded me of someone, anyone. He almost bore a likeness to Cloud, the boy who left town and was never heard from again._

_'"Are you all right?" I asked. A series of moans emitted from the man's mouth, and I ran to him._

_'He lifted his head to face me. It really looked like Cloud, but it had been seven years since I last saw him, since he had made that promise and then never contacted us again. _

_The more I looked at him, the more he seemed to look like Cloud. I suppose now that was the Jenova, reacting to my memories..._

_'"Uh...Tifa?" he managed to cough._

_'Maybe it was Cloud', thought I. And when I said that, he stood up and took a look around, and at himself, as if to size up where and who he was._

_'"Tifa!" he said with more confidence, his eyes were glowing brightly blue; he was obviously infused with mako, that's the tell-tale mark._

_'I finally worked up the nerve to say it, "Cloud?"_

_'Cloud smiled and held the dark-haired man's sword. "That's right. I'm Cloud."  
'When he said that, I was filled with emotions. Why hadn't he contacted me for the last seven years? Where did he get that sword? He joined SOLDIER? Then where was he five years ago? Where was my hero to come rescue me?_

_'"Is it really you, Cloud?" I asked, "I never thought I'd find you here!"_

_'"Yeah," Cloud smiled, "It's been a while."_

_'It was strange, it didn't seem like anything was wrong with him anymore, but I could have sworn that his eyes flashed white then._

_'"What happened to you?" I asked, "You don't look well."_

_'Cloud thought for a moment, and checked himself. He was scratched up, as if he had a heavy fall, "Yeah?" as if it was a matter of opinion, "It's nothing," he concluded, "I'm fine."_

_'"How long has it been?" I asked falsely, I knew exactly how long. Two months short of seven—_

_'"Five years," came the reply, and his eyes flashed white again, but so quickly I couldn't notice it. If only I had known then what I know now._

_'That was false. The Nibelheim incident happened five years ago. How was I to respond to something like that?_

_'"What is it?" Cloud asked, noticing my discomfort._

_'I smiled, "It's really been a long time... You look like you could use a rest. Come stay at my loft, it's just down the street."_

_'"Sure."_

* * *

_'I tended to his wounds without potions; I would have to learn how to brew after Cloud was all patched up. He told me so much, in frightening detail about the past I knew he did not have. There were things that he shouldn't have known, but he did, like minute details about the Nibelheim incident. And then, there were very basic things that he needed to know but blanked out on, like his own mother's name. I suppose I don't remember it either, why should he?_

_'He also didn't remember how he got to be in SOLDIER, or what he did before he became partnered with Sephiroth. When I asked him, he merely winced in pain, the Jenova cells, I guess, attacking his mind._

_'I didn't bring up my promise with the boy Cloud until weeks later. Cloud said he was working as a mercenary now, and that someone from Costa Del Sol had hired him to take care of a monster problem in the area. He was leaving. I didn't want that, of course I didn't. I didn't even know for sure if this was even the real Cloud yet, I had to stay close to him, to study him. I knew, at the time, that this was a big deal, him coming into my life, muddling up the past as he did. I didn't know anything about Jenova other than what Sephiroth had said on the fateful day that Nibelheim burnt to the ground, so I was just as confused as anyone._

_'So I convinced Barret to hire Cloud to join the assault. They didn't really need Cloud, Biggs was a skilled marksman and Jessie could have activated the bomb. I had a long talk with Barret who finally agreed on fifteen hundred gil – which was five hundred more than what the men in Costa del Sol were offering, and no travel time. He accepted, and returned, and almost left again, when I brought the promise up. He didn't seem to remember it at all. As if he had never been there. But when I began to explain it, my memories created him, and he "remembered."_

'_We went to a reactor the next day, and it reminded me of the death of my father._

'_I sat by him in Kalm as he recalled the Nibelheim incident. I was beside him always, keeping under the radar, but feeding him everything he needed…_

_'And then, slowly, he began to form a complete person under his puppet skin. Someone who, while experiencing fake memories, and being drawn to the Northern Crater by Jenova's will, was still a loveable person, as real as me, or Barret or Aeris. I don't know if I was capable of love seven years ago, I was not even a woman yet. But this new Cloud, be it the Cloud I knew as a child, or just his likeness with a fake personality, he became the real Cloud, closer than I had ever been to anyone, even Barret, who I see as a big brother._

_'Barret... save me... save me so that I can see him again, and tell him, that I don't care who he is. I just want to be by his side...'_


	111. Book 5: Sapphire Weapon

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Sapphire Weapon**

Heidegger began a long walk. Rufus stood at the great window in the operations room, overlooking the sea. The cannon was above, stretching towards the sky, still aimed at Wutai city. The alarms were still sounding, Heidegger quickened his pace. Needless to say he was not having a good week. Ever since Meteor's appearance, the world had gone to hell, if such a place existed. AVALANCHE had talked about the Lifestream, and mako, but they used it to reason the deaths of thousands of people. Heidegger didn't like death under his watch – it made him look the fool. There had been an assassination attempt that week, not directed at Rufus. Heidegger could give two shits about Rufus now that Meteor was coming. Someone had tried to kill Heidegger himself. Probably thought he was unfit for the title of Peace Preserver. Where the bullet came from the roboguards never deducted. _'Roboguards'_Heidegger laughed in his head, _'What useless robots.'_ He was breaking out in a sweat, but Rufus had turned and was listening.

Heidegger puffed, but confirmed. "It's Weapon." 

"There's been so many attacks lately," Rufus sighed, "Can we handle it?"

"I believe so. Your orders?"

"No need to ask."

Heidegger saluted the president, grabbing the PHS and ordered the marines to prepare the mako cannon, and to ready Junon for a full-scale attack. 

* * *

Along the Grand Path, a metre wide slit opened in front of all the shops and houses. Lieutenant Bath and Commander Dearness were standing in the great path when the steel walls erected behind them. They turned to look. Not since before they were enlisted in Junon had the steel walls ever gone up. They rose out of the ground, each one as wide as the building it was shielding. They extended further up and up before clicking into the soffits of all the buildings. On every level of Junon, steel walls extended, protecting shop owners and wealthy residents of Junon. Lieutenant Bath and Commander Dearness cleared the areas of the concrete marked with red.

They watched as the building-wide sections of the Grand Path detached with a clunk and sunk down below the rest of the asphalt. As unseen gears made brawny grinding noises, the sunken sheets of path slid underneath the buildings behind them and from the hollowed cavities below, massive automatic turret cannons arose, their foundations as tall as Dearness. The cannons faced the ocean, which was eerily calm. Dearness' PHS crackled and the order was given to assemble all troops along the grand path and equip them with rocket launchers in case the cannon blast should fail.

The mako cannon began to shift and shake as it began to aim lower, towards the ocean – which was still eerily calm. The automatic turrets that lined the Grand Path began to swivel and tried to aim – but with no visual lock they continued to scan the waters

The tenth garrison was lined up along the Grand Path. Inside the building shields there were compartments with rocket launchers for all of them. Lieutenant Bath had barely been trained to use a rocket launcher; it seemed heavy and oddly shaped. Bath stumbled as he tried to carry it back to his position at the front of the line.

"Stay in position!" Dearness called. Propping the rocket launcher upon his shoulder, he looked out at the ocean and all was silent as the mako cannon slowed to a stop.

After a few tense moments the front end of the mako cannon exploded with light and kicked backwards. The sound and shockwave came moments later - rushing along the Grand Path – it shook deep within Bath's chest and he almost stumbled under the weight of the rocket launcher.

After the initial few seconds of shock, Bath looked out at the ocean as the pulse of mako energy flew towards the calm horizon. Just before it became too small to see, it collided with the water and sent water spraying directly upwards for nearly a kilometre. The water trembled as another shockwave rushed back towards Junon and the faint sounds of a splash washed over them.

The waves sent by the shockwave crashed into the slums below them – it didn't concern Bath all that much whether or not slumlings died. He was too upset that he was missing the execution of those who allowed Cloud Strife to summon Meteor and release Weapon upon the world.

As the sounds of the waves crashing into houses – the splintering and screaming below – faded, it was deathly calm. Dearness didn't have to give the order to be still or silent – that was already happening. The troops on Bath's left and right were rigid with fear and anxiety. The ocean was as calm as it had been before.

They stood, shadowed by the massive automatic turrets which had stopped moving entirely. Everything was held in place for moments, and then suddenly, Dearness spoke.

"A direct hit," he said calmly, although the troops weren't cheering just yet. "Weapon's status, unconfirmed."

The blaring of klaxons began again and Dearness cried.

"Weapon is still approaching! Speed of fifty knots! Impossible!"

Out of the calm surface of the water, great scaly, shell-like fins emerged and sent waves crashing in all directions. It was still mostly submerged, but the fins – green, purple and blue on the horizon were as tall as buildings and moving swiftly towards them.

The mako cannon still needed time to recharge energy; there was nothing between Weapon and Junon besides them.

"Stand your ground!" Dearness cried, "Fire on my sig—"

He was cut off by the automatic turret above him. It had confirmed visual contact with Weapon and began to fire pulses of energy at the creature on the horizon. Bath noticed that all of the turrets, not just the fifty on the Grand Path, but a hundred more on other paths below and above them, were firing. The amount of energy pulses filling the air was nearly blinding – most of them collided with Weapon's massive fins and exploded upon impact – but they seemed to be doing no damage.

"She's almost in range. Don't let her land! First wave prepare to fire!"

The troops on Bath's left and right moved the rocket launchers into launching position – he hadn't even realized that he had been the only one with the weapon propped on his shoulder. He briefly looked to his left. Beyond Dearness and the turret (which was still firing a shot every few seconds) there were troops farther than he could see – all readying their rocket launchers. Another commander three turrets down had already given the order to fire – rocket launchers were fired and smoke trailed away from them. Like a wave coming towards them, all of the MPs fired their rocket launchers until finally Dearness called "Fire!"

As the rocket exploded out of his barrel, Bath was knocked backwards and barely caught himself before the MPs in the row behind him rushed forward with their rocket launchers at the ready. Bath moved to the side and looked out at sea.

Weapon was closer still – most of the thousands of rockets fired from Junon had filled the sky with clear lines of smoke but the rockets splashed into the water around Weapon. Those that had hit did as much damage as the energy blasts from the turrets.

The second row had finished firing and was running to the back of the line to reload. Bath realized that he hadn't done so and barely made it to the back when the third row fired their rockets blindly out to sea. The fourth row was firing when he rejoined his place in line and waited as the fifth row fired – and he was suddenly at the front of the line again.

The turrets had stopped firing – it was too dangerous to fire at a target so close to the city. Dearness had his hand pointed up, poised to give the firing order once more, but he had stopped, his mouth hanging open.

Weapon was right upon them – the wave that the monster had created was high enough to breach the elevated city. Dearness lost heart and began to scramble away. Bath, in a last minute attempt to do some harm, fired blindly before running away. The blast knocked him to the ground and the rocket flew harmlessly up into the air.

The asphalt shook violently with the impact and Bath was thrown into the air when the water hit him and he was swept along with it. He didn't even notice that it was wet – it seemed like a solid form was throwing him swiftly against the building shields.

When he hit, he wagered that he must have broken at least two limbs – the pain was excruciating. And then the water rushed over him and he felt its wetness. The pressure pumped the air out of his lungs and through his gasping mouth. He feared death for a split second before the water released him and he dropped to the wet asphalt. The wave had rocketed into the sky and was raining down on him, he felt surreal.

* * *

The impact of Weapon's arrival shook the gas chamber and Tifa's head bobbed in her unconscious state. Around the world, eyes were glued to the screen as she gave a sign that she was still alive – although in horrible pain.

Outside of the gas chamber, Cait Sith was peering out into the hallway.

"The gas chamber is probably controlled in another room," he said to Barret, "Let's go."

No sooner had they exited the room, however, that it shut behind them.

"Scarlet!" Cait Sith cried, "Damn, I knew I should have given her more sleeping gas. All right, time for plan B. Follow me to the airport path."

"Airport Path!" Barret cried, "And leave Tifa here? I don't have time for this shit!"

"Just trust me! I care about Tifa too!" The tiny cat ran through the corridor and Barret lumbered after him. They arrived in the great hall, Sephiroth's golden likeness towered before them. From the top of the staircase, MPs began to run.

"There's Barret the Blackhearted!" they cried, "Kill him!"

Barret leapt to the side as bullets hit the marble floor. Cait Sith was undeterred by the fire and he ran to a doorway.

"This way!" he cried.

Barret stood and fired up at the MPs – his blood bullets pierced through their armour and one by one they fell from the staircase.

There were more on the way and Barret scrambled through the doorway as bullets grazed his massive boots. He ran through the corridor after Cait Sith – who was much faster than his older version which relied on a stuffed mog as transportation.

They arrived on the Grand Path, which was soaking wet and all but deserted. A few MPs scurried hither and thither, in too much confusion to notice that Barret was free of bindings and running as he would.

Great sapphire coloured fins towered over them, blocking the morning sky. They ran past the fins, which wavered with the wind and had numerous scratch marks from the rockets that had exploded upon them.

A small figure was running towards them – a short, scrawny female by Barret's standards, with no hips or bosom to speak of. As she approached however, the tone in her skin was unmistakably Wutaian.

"Yuffie!" Barret cried.

"Where the hell were you!" Yuffie screamed at him, "You and Tifa had the dumb idea to stay captured for seven whole days? What were you thinking!"

"We wasn't captured!" Barret said, "I thought we was helping."

"Help Rufus? Yeah, thanks, now the whole world has intimate details about all of us. Shinra's preparing to go to war with Wutai now that I'm knowingly involved. You blunderer, I'm going to—"

Her words were cut short by a rumbling sound towards the ocean and the three of them looked, startled, at Sapphire Weapon.

The creature arose from the water, the fins on its back spread apart to reveal its enormous round head – out of the top a great spike reached up towards space. Barret had seen its great yellow eyes before – they had appeared inside a wall of materia in Knowlespole. It looked at them briefly, but in passing. As it continued to rise, they saw its whole face – shimmering, as it the creature was made out of minerals and materia. It was a brilliant sapphire, with a long shell covering the bottom half of its face and extending down like a massively long beak that dipped into the waters below. It blinked furiously at Junon. Barret realized with a sudden despair that the weapons created by the Planet saw all humans equally – and here he thought that his crusading might reward him special favour in the Planet's eyes. He was an ant in a bad colony, still ripe for the squashing.

"There's no time to waste!" Cait Sith shouted. Barret noticed that Yuffie wasn't too perturbed by the cat's sudden existence. "We have to get to the airport path!"

Lieutenant Bath had regained his composure behind them.

"Hey! You're Barret the Blackhearted!"

"Shit!" Barret cried, "Run for it!"

Bath was halfway to his gun before Barret, Yuffie and Cait Sith dashed towards the airport path.

"Sure!" Yuffie shouted as they ran, "They recognize Barret right away, but who knows the princess of Wutai? Nobody, that's who!"

"Can we put your ego aside for one moment!" Cait Sith shouted, but he was falling behind a little. Yuffie slowed down and grabbed Cait Sith's tail, slinging him over her shoulder as they ran.

"This isn't what I had in mind!" Cait Sith cried.

Bath was joined by more MPs who were in pursuit. Barret stopped for a moment and turned around quickly, aiming for their legs. As he fired, he sprayed the whole width of the Grand Path and Bath fell to the asphalt screaming in pain. He was joined by the other MPs who could no longer run. Barret turned and ran after them.

They were underneath the Shinra airship, which bobbed up and down in its rope holdings. Beyond the airship, the path ended and dropped into the sea, where Weapon sat like a monstrous whale, majestic and deadly.

"Yo!" Barret cried, "You sure this is the right way? This looks like a dead end!"

"Uh-oh," Cait Sith sighed, "Did I make a wrong turn?"

Barret threw his fist and gun-arm into the air in agonizing frustrations, "Ya damn cat! What the hell are we gonna do now? They'll be comin' real soon!"

Barret turned to face the path, where MPs were amassing. Weapon seemed to be watching it all with indifference. Barret rubbed his gun-arm appreciatively. He would fight until the end. He would not go down like Tifa, who had walked gracefully into the gas chamber. He would kill until he died, beside Yuffie and Cait Sith. Last month he would have never expected to be standing at the end of his life with those two.

"You better watch my back 'til the end, partners," he called back to them. They walked up and stood on either side of him. Yuffie readied her shuriken and smiled at him. Was that respect in her eyes? No matter, Barret pointed his gun arm at the swarm of MPs who approached them.

* * *

Rufus and Heidegger stood facing the glass wall, watching what they had now classified as Sapphire Weapon.

The shell casing around Sapphire Weapon's mouth suddenly detached and the beak slid off its face, revealing flat, pearlescent teeth and an open mouth cavity. Leaning back, it seemed to take in a deep breath, and something began to glow on the insides of its mouth.

"Now would be the time to evacuate, sir!" Heidegger cried. Rufus agreed and they began to bolt for the door.

Outside, energy was gathered inside Sapphire Weapon's throat and it leaned forward before screaming out and releasing the great particle beam towards Junon.

It was a straight, unbroken particle beam that connected Sapphire Weapon's mouth to the city of Junon. Its head shook violently, as if it could barely sustain the pressure of the magical beam. Swerving its head to and fro, it cut deeply into Junon's control tower – which included the vice-president's office and the gas chamber. The brunt of the collision shattered Junon's glass wall – Rufus and Heidegger had escaped just in time.

The exhalation ceased and Sapphire Weapon looked slightly tired. It reared back and inhaled again – the inside of its maws glowing brighter and brighter until—

The mako cannon reared back as it fired at Sapphire Weapon. As the mako blast exploded out of the barrel, the space between the cannon and Weapon's face became shrouded in flame and smoke. One thing was for certain though – at that moment everything stopped dead. As the smoke cleared away, it was visible to everyone on the Junon paths that Weapon had been vanquished. Green blood oozed down the scaly body as the spike that had been atop its head flew freely through the air. Its head was completely gone, a charred, smoking crater had replaced it. After a few pregnant moments, the fish-like body of Sapphire Weapon tilted forward and crashed into the sea, its glowing tail flipping out of the water before sinking down with it. The waves it made when it collapsed washed away the last traces of houses in the Junon slums.

* * *

The orange of the fading morning filled the gas chamber, and Tifa was stirred awake. Across the globe came reactions from viewers, most of who were upset, but a selected few, who had actually come into contact with the charming Tifa and her companions, were overjoyed. Priscilla below even cheered, for they had brought the television, still image fixed on Tifa's dying form, into the bomb shelter when Weapon had arrived.

The chair which had once held Tifa in place had been rocked open, but she sat there, needing a few moments to get the gas out of her lungs. She was tired, and in pain, but the gas was creeping out of a large gaping wound in the steel curved wall. A sizeable chunk of the room had been melted away by a particle beam, it looked like. The wound's edges faded from red to a charred black.

When strength returned to her, Tifa stood and looked about. Wires had been sliced by Sapphire Weapon's beam, and they spilled black liquid over the floor. The door was untouched.

Tifa moved to the door and out of frame, but the world still watched, their eyes fixed on the still, broken chair while listening to Tifa's frustrated attempts to get the door open. It became increasingly obvious that she was stuck in there.

The sky was a smouldering red, and she stared out the hole in the ceiling for a long time, breathing in the oxygen. She was alive, for now. She was safe.

An immediate pounding came on the metal door behind her. "Open this door!" shouted Scarlet through the steel, and viewers' drifting attention was once again caught, and suspense filled every household with a telly set.

"It's not opening, miss Scarlet!" shouted an MP.

"Then blast it open!" Scarlet cried, "AVALANCHE will die today, Weapon's interference in only a setback."

Viewers watched the broken chair, and heard Tifa's struggling once more. And then, an explosion knocked the camera right over, and it tilted to show the fracture in the room. Tifa was straddling the crevice, and threw her last leg precariously over the edge; only her fingers remained in the room. Scarlet ran into frame and scratched at Tifa's fingers but it was too late, the prisoner had already begun to climb down Junon's exterior.

"After her, you fools!" she shouted, and one of the MPs tripped over the camera, and the last thing the public saw was a blue helmet crashing towards them, and then snow for eternity.

* * *

�The exterior shell of Junon was not meant for thrill-seeking rock climbers or escaping prisoners, so Tifa had a difficult time climbing down. Fortunately for her, Weapon's particle beam had warped the surface somewhat, which made it possible in the first place. She continued her descent, thanking old Zangan for her martial arts training, so she could nimbly navigate the nearly vertical bronze wall. The wind was biting and it came in waves.

She looked to her right, at the Grand Path, very far away from her. The shields in front of the buildings retracted down into the ground, and the cannons shrunk away. Civilians fled out into the path and looked down at the sea, and a few pointed and looked up at Tifa.

An MP fell off the wall above her, and screamed horrifically as he tumbled past the cannon below them and down towards the sea.

Tifa swallowed, and looked up. There were two MPs in pursuit now, and Scarlet was on her way down, too. _'So,'_ Tifa thought, _'the bitch wears black underwear.'_

There seemed to be nowhere to go but down, and Tifa continued, as fast as she could. They were gaining, the only way she could speed herself up was to jump. She looked down. Ten metres or so until the cannon's surface. She let go.

She landed on a heap on the cannon's surface, and pain shot through her body, her legs especially.

Getting up, she frantically looked up, they were still in close pursuit. She scrambled down the cannon, it was the only way to go. She was weak from the gas, and had no materia to protect her. She panted but continued running, hopefully the MPs and Scarlet would lose their balance and fall to their death before they reached her at the end of the cannon. Tifa scrambled, her catlike balance second nature to her.

She wasn't too far away from the edge of the long shaft when she stopped and turned back. If the MPs hadn't fallen off of the cannon by now, she was dead meat. The MPs, and Scarlet as well, were right behind her, and they slowed to a stop.

"Our little game of hide and seek ends here."

Scarlet moved past the MPs and walked up to Tifa. She brought her hand up and delivered a firm, precise slap in the face. Tifa's head was knocked seaward, and saw the ocean, and she concluded that it would be her gravesite sooner than later. Scarlet reaffirmed this idea.

"The execution may have been unsuccessful, but your death by falling from here and crashing into the water below might still be exciting."

Tifa was slapped again, her face pushed back to look at the great path so far away now, the streets lined with people watching her death. But she wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Quit slapping me, you old wench!" Tifa shouted, and slapped Scarlet right back.  
Scarlet looked surprised more than anything and in that moment Tifa found the strength to deliver a great big uppercut right to Scarlet's jaw. Scarlet fell back and landed on the cannon's edge.

"Ah!" she screamed as she started to slip, but one MP caught her and brought her back onto the cannon. Tifa was about to attack, but the other MP had his gun trained on her. It was the end.

"Stuck up right to the finish," Scarlet said, squatted on the ground. "Prepare to fire on my mark."

Something happened behind Tifa. At first, she was concentrating harder on the MPs, who were caressing the triggers, and Scarlet who rubbed her skeletal cheek as she stood up, careful of her high heels on the cannon's surface.

The noise became louder, it sounded almost like the windmill atop of the old water tower in Nibelheim. But it became louder still, and the roar of an engine came rumbling from beneath.

_'But,'_ Tifa reasoned, _'There's nothing underneath the cannon except water!'_

The MPs lowered their guns and took a step back, shocked or fearful of something. Scarlet did exactly the opposite, rushing forward and signalling to attack. Tifa frantically looked behind her.

The view was much different than before, as she couldn't even see the ocean anymore. At first it looked like a great metal wall rising into the air, but soon she found it was a rounded shape, like a great steel egg was floating up from the ocean. Spray-painted onto the metal was a woman reclining in nothing but her underwear and the word in red: _HIGHWIND_.

The egg ended and she now was looking into the face of Barret Wallace, who waved at her. As the airship continued to rise, she saw that he was standing on the very place where she had been knocked into a coma last week. He was metres above her now, and he tossed a thick maroon rope down to her. She ran to the end of the cannon and leapt to catch it.

And she missed.


	112. Book 5: The Departure of Tifa

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter5**

**The Departure of Tifa**

Barret was concentrating too hard on Tifa's pursuer than Tifa herself. He had tied the rope to the railing of _The Highwind_'s passenger deck, Tifa should be fine, he reasoned. He took careful aim of Scarlet, not at her head, but at her arm.

The bitch had taken his arm four years ago, and he decided that it was time for payback. He drank the irony, briefly, if she had not shot off his arm, his aim would still be poor and he would not have acquired the weapon that would inevitably be her demise. He gave a toothy smirk as he focused on her arm; he reached up with his good hand and pulled the trigger on his gun-arm contraption. It was a good feeling. he had almost forgotten what it felt like to have his very essence drained out of him, becoming an instrument of death.

As he let his blood morph into bullets through his machine, Tifa let out a scream, falling towards the ocean over twenty metres below. He fired but missed, she had distracted him.  
The rope was long, however, and it swung back towards her. Tifa caught it at the very last second. _'Natural,'_ Barret mused, _'We're adventurers, ain't we?'_

Scarlet had taken Barret's firing as too close of a call, and she was retreating back down the cannon towards the Grand Path. Barret uttered a quick curse before reaching for the rope.

Tifa was making her way up the rope and _The Highwind_ continued to rise into the sky, its many propellers giving the pilots maximum control over it's placement in the ocean's wind. Scarlet was just a speck now, and Junon looked like a large toy, and Barret closed one eye to get rid of that pesky depth perception that told him that Junon was not a toy, it was merely far away.

"You take your second eye for granted," Nanaki said. Barret was surprised at the acoustic nature of the passenger deck, for the beast spoke quietly.

"Yeah, well," Barret huffed, "You take your second hand for granted."

"I have paws," Nanaki answered coldly.

"Then get someone who has two hands over here and help me get Tifa back on the ship!"

Nanaki uttered something quiet enough to be ignored and pushed open the deck's door with his head, trotting down the staircase.

Vincent came on deck a few moments later.

"Oh," Barret said, "It's you."

"Yes," Vincent said, darker and colder than Nanaki, "It's me."

They stood in silence for a while. Barret had nothing to say to Vincent; Vincent rarely had anything to say at all. And what would they talk about? Guns? Barret wasn't interested in guns, he was interested in what they were used for. They were both referred to as "The Dark Man," even though Vincent's skin was as pale as pearl, and Barret's an obvious black. _'Woo-hoo,'_ sarcasm struck, _'Something in common.'_

After a few moments, Vincent grabbed the rope with both arms, even his strange artificial one. Barret helped with his good arm.

"So, uh..." Barret asked, "What's up with that arm?"

Vincent looked at it briefly, as if he hadn't noticed it before, "I don't know," he said, "It happened when I was under."

"Under..." Barret repeated, "Hojo's experimentation, huh?"

No reply, as usual. Barret looked over the edge at Tifa, who seemed close enough to holler at.

"Hey, girl!" he shouted, "Don't scare me like that!"

"When was that?" Tifa replied, "When I was gassed to death or when I fell to my death?"

"Jes' don't die at all, there are people here who like you alive, an' not all Lifestreamy. Even Vincent. Right?"

"I am incapable of liking anyone," Vincent said. Barret checked his face to see if he was joking. The same old Vincent face, expressionless. Vincent looked right back.

"That was intended to be humorous," he explained.

"I think you need to work on it," Tifa laughed, but not at the joke.

"Aww," Barret smiled down at her, "Give'm a break, Tifa. Guy's been asleep for thirty years, even if he had good humour, it'd probably be outdated. I was jes a babe when Vinnie was put under."

"Don't call me Vinnie," Vincent said. Tifa reached the rail and climbed over onto the deck, and Vincent turned, throwing his cape behind him.

"See what I mean?" Barret laughed, "No sense of--"

Tifa wrapped her arms around him and began to weep. Vincent hurried off the deck and left them alone.

"Aww," Barret smiled, "Hey, sis."

"Oh, Barret," she cried, "That was too close."

"Yeah well," Barret put his big hand against the back of her head, and stroked her hair, "It jes means that the end is sooner than we think. Win or lose, live or die, Meteor's comin, and either the world'll be saved, or it won't."

"You're all I have left," Tifa sobbed.

She turned her face up to look at him, her chin resting on his chest. Her eyes were red with tears. Barret ran a finger along her cheek.

"There, there," he said, "We just gotta... keep goin. This train we're on..."

Tifa laughed, and said, stuffily, "Yeah, yeah." She put on her best Barret impression and said, "It don't got no brakes."

Barret laughed, "Thatta spirits!"

* * *

Inside, Barret's optimism faded as he confronted Cait Sith. Tifa was more surprised at Cait Sith's presence than anything else, but Barret seemed absolutely livid. They stood on a rose coloured walkway over a depression filled with machines. At the end of the walkway, the same rose coloured metal formed a staircase that led upwards.

"Why didn't ya _tell_ me you could fly an airship?! I thought Tifa was gone for good!"

"Sorry," Cait Sith said, "I had to do something to trick the enemy."

"An' which enemy was that?" Barret's spit was caught in his bushy beard, he glared at the cat, who, if he took offence to the statement, didn't show it.

"Hurry up and get to the bridge, Tifa," Cait Sith turned to her, "Everyone's waiting."

"Everyone?" Tifa asked. "Everyone's here?"

Tifa had not seen Nanaki on the passenger deck – nor had she noticed Yuffie, who was sprawled in a corner on the passenger deck (her motion sickness had taken over and she refused to move from that spot).

Cait Sith and Barret moved up the rose coloured stairs and Tifa followed slowly – still inhibited by the gas and the traumatic ordeal she had just overcome.

The stairs led onto the bridge – which was a large, upside-down dome-shaped room. The front half of the dome was made of glass so that apart from the skeleton of the dome, the outside was completely visible. They soared over the Midgar Mountains.

Before she could examine anything closer, Cid Highwind approached her, laughing through his cigarette. "Welcome to my airship, _The Highwind_." He held his spear lazily over his shoulder – he hadn't let go of that thing since Wutai. There was something different about it, however, and when Tifa examined it, she noticed two sphere-shaped grooves near the spade. Two materia stones – a green and a purple – rested inside.

She looked around some more. Vincent and Nanaki stood in a square recess, looking at maps and graphs on a great screen. They turned to look at her, both unable to smile properly. Barret stood at the front of the bridge, leaning forward onto the glass and looking at the mountains below.

Cait Sith walked towards one of the engineers stations, where two mechanics busied themselves with electronic panels. There was a giant stuffed Mog at the engineers' station – Tifa hadn't seen one like it since the Temple of the Ancients. Cait Sith climbed atop it and it spun around to face her, waving broadly. A smaller pilot station was near the front of the bridge and to the right. A man in an orange vest nervously clutched at a great wooden steering wheel. Tifa frowned sadly.

"What's the matter?" Cid asked behind her, "You should be more exited than that."

Tifa turned back to him – now everyone's eyes were on her, even the strange mechanics. Nanaki shook his head. "Cid…"

Cid scratched his head, "Yeah, I know."

"Not enough crew," Tifa said sullenly.

Cid stammered, "Well, it takes all kinds."

"Do you think we aren't strong enough without Cloud?" Nanaki asked, completely ignoring everyone else's careful handling of the subject, "Do you think we can't save the Planet alone?"

"Meteor is coming," Tifa announced, as if she was telling them something new. It was news to her – she had only found out today. The thought occurred to her that everyone else had already had a week to deal with Meteor's existence. "At a time like this, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. No idea at all."

"Get a hold of yourself, Tifa!" Barret shouted, lumbering towards her. His feet made the steel floor rattle. "We started somethin' and now we gotta finish it! C'mon, think."

"If Cloud were here," Tifa felt a burning sensation in her throat and she reasoned it must have made her voice crack up. She had dreaded tears – at the mention of his name, it took all her strength to fight them, "everything would be fine. Cloud would… stand that little cocky way he did, and tell us what to do. He'd say 'Everything's under control, Tifa.'"

There was silence before Barret reached her. "Tifa, when did you become such a wimp?"

There seemed to be no rebuttal from anyone. Everyone seemed shock at Barret's lack of compassion – surely even he could sympathize with Tifa. The only person nonplussed was Tifa.

"I'm sorry, Barret," she shook her head, "I'm kind of shocked myself. I'm so depressed."

"What happened to the tough girl I used to know?" Barret asked, "Where'd she go to?"

"Tifa," Nanaki continued, "The only reason we agreed that he was Cloud was because you said he was. I think even he relied on your opinion to justify his own existence."

"I know. That's why I want to make sure, one way or the other. That's why I have to see him again."

"I want you to know," Cid puffed, "I didn't dislike him. Gotta admit he was a strange dude. Just when you thought he was cool, he'd go and do some damn fool thing. And when you thought he was smart, he'd show how stupid he was. Everything about him from his movements to his speech were kinda odd. Knowin' what I do now, I can see why he was that way. Well, as long as you stay alive, you might see him again someday. So cheer up, kid."

Cid laughed. Tifa smiled, "Maybe."

"If we can find out where he is," Cid assured her, "_The Highwind_'ll get us there in no time."

"Maybe," Nanaki said, "Cloud is still stuck deep in the north crater, where the ground cracked and swallowed him up. Buried in the chthonic depths of the underground."

"Deep within the earth," Tifa thought. "Are you talking about the Lifestream?"

"The Lifestream sometimes gushes out to the surface from cracks in the ocean floor. I heard that such a place exists."

"So let's go back to the northern crater," Tifa nodded.

"Too much hope is the opposite of despair," Vincent said coldly, "An overpowering love may consume you in the end."

"Oh can it," Cid barked, "The northern crater! Think you can handle that, Will?" Cid asked.

Will Bleer, the nervous man at the wheel, nodded feverishly. Cid laughed, "I'm going down to the operations room, and if we're going back to that hellhole I'm going to prepare my spear."

Tifa walked up to Will Bleer. "Are you a new pilot?" she asked.

Will nodded, "We're on course now, and luckily I'm not the only person flying this thing. And with Cid as a captain, things couldn't be better."

"How did this happen?" Tifa asked.

"Well," Will said, still clutching the wheel tightly, "Working on _The Highwind_, we spent every day slaving under Heidegger. Whenever he got yelled at by the President, he'd immediately take it out on the crew. We put up with this all the time. Even when he beat us. I mean, I finally made it on the crew of the famous _Highwind_, and there was no way I was going to quit over him. Let's see, it must've been a week ago… it was my shift and we were heading towards the northern crater. Everyone, including the President and Scarlet, got on. And with them, I saw Cid, a legendary pilot! And he was looking around the inside of the ship looking really, y'know, nostalgic. He even talked to us. I couldn't believe it! I was so impressed! He was every bit as warm-hearted as we'd always heard."

Tifa smirked at the prospect of strangers finding Cid to be warm-hearted.

"Cid said that if he had _The Highwind_, things would be a lot easier. And now here we are off to save the Planet. It's true. He really overwhelmed me, and that's why we decided to help. After the crater, we went to Junon, and I started screaming 'Fire! Fire!' In the middle of all the commotion, we stole this ship from the Shinra. That's how it happened… just a minor mutiny against our leaders. Shinra has kept it off the news because we don't have any weaponry aboard. They didn't put up much of a fight, but Barret and you were captured by Heidegger. We waited seven days for a chance to rescue you guys before we finally could. So thanks to our successful mission, we were able to see you again."

They were flying over Midgar and Barret shouted "Look!"

They rushed to the front of the circular floor and looked down at Midgar. The clouds had parted and they could see the top plate clearly.

"Ain't that somethin'," Barret said, "The pollution's all gone."

"No," Vincent said, "It's been blown about – thinned. The appearance of a second moon has altered everything about our Planet – even the way smog clusters."

"Did Weapon get to it?" Tifa asked, pointing out numerous fires around the cities.

"Meteorites rained down on Midgar," Cait Sith announced, "That was what dispersed the pollution. Many died, and we lost a reactor."

"Are you down there?" Tifa asked, "Somewhere?"

Cait Sith shook his head, "I was in Junon when Weapon attacked, I'm on my way to meet with the president now. If you don't mind, I'm going to shut off for a bit. Tifa, if you ever need information about the Shinra, ask me."

The fires were under control, and Barret looked down at it. "Looks better from above," he murmured, "'Probly why all the bigwigs hang out in the Shinra tower."

Soon, Midgar passed underneath them and they were sailing over the northern Wastelands before they slid smoothly into the ocean, which looked just as dead as the land – even from their height.

"This view is going to get pretty boring from here on out," Cid had arrived at the bridge. "Might as well show you around the ship."

Tifa and Barret followed Cid off the bridge – the rest had obviously become acquainted with _The Highwind_ throughout the week.

They walked on the rose walkway over the machinery as Barret talked. "Whenever I think about… Cloud," he huffed, as if it pained him as well to say the name. "No matter how powerful Shinra or Hojo is, I can't believe they can create humans. But because of them, we know that Meteor is heading towards us. Y'know, even if I did see him, I don't have a damn idea what I'd do."

"This is level B2," Cid announced, ignoring Barret's comments, "Those stairs will take you up to the observation deck and then up further to the rest of the ship."

The stairs were made of steel like everything around, and, like everything else, were beginning to rust at the edges. They walked over a large grated area where they could see a crew deck below them. "Below us is B1," Cid said, "That's where the crew runs most of the maintenance for on-board living. It's also where you can park your motorcars and motorcycles. Up ahead is the operations room."

They moved through two great double doors into a large meeting room that reminded Tifa of the corporate meeting room in the Shinra tower. The carpets were a deep crimson embroidered around the edges with golden thread. An ornate oak table was in the centre of the room – but Tifa was surprised to find that there were no chairs. Another officer in an orange vest and blue suit saluted them.

"Congratulations on a job well done," he said. Tifa assumed he was talking about Cid's cunning rescue mission.

"Were you counting on Weapon blasting me out of the gas chamber?" Tifa asked.

"Hell no!" Cid laughed, "I was planning on you two not letting yourselves get executed, you fucking numbskull. Cait Sith was there to put Scarlet out while you two escaped, met up with Yuffie on the Grand Path and moved to the airship. We figured we had lost you, Tifa, for good. Thank lady luck for Weapon."

"Weapon's the bad guy!" Barret said fervently.

"Weapon is fighting Shinra," Cid shrugged, "It's going after the most polluted and corrupt parts of the Planet. The Nibel Mountains. The Gold Saucer. What's bothering me is that they all haven't gone straight for Midgar."

"The meteorites are probably preventing them from doing that."

Cid nodded and lit up another cigarette. "In any case, it's not really a threat to us since we're not hanging around in any cities. Personally I think we should be granted immunity for trying to prevent this whole thing – well, we got an 'A' for effort but an 'F' for results, right? I've got no beef with Weapon." He was at the edge of the table, in front of a large screen in the wall. "This is the operations room. Any briefings, debriefings and meetings will happen here or on the bridge – depending whether I'm too lazy to move my ass from one room to the other."

They moved out of the operations room and began up the stairs but Tifa stopped and pointed to another door that they hadn't gone through. "What's that?"

"Those are the chocobo stables," Cid laughed, "In case passengers were chocobo breeders or racers. I designed this ship to be a floating city – the richest of the rich would be able to fly. Seems improbable, doesn't it? I was born a slumling myself, but Cathal put out the commission, who am I to refuse?"

They moved up to the observation deck, passing rows and rows of parachute packs. Clouds slowly floated past them as Tifa noticed Yuffie spread-eagled on the wooden deck.

"Yuffie, I didn't notice you there."

"Oh don't worry, Tifa," Yuffie burped, "I'm sneaky like that, remember? I think I'll just not move for a while. You two go look at the ship. I'll be down when we, uh, stop."

They left the observation deck and continued up the stairs. Cid was already finished his cigarette and he put the butt out on the wall. He dropped the butt on the stairs as they continued.

"Keep goin' like that, Cid," Barret shook his head, "And we'll be swimmin' in cigarette butts."

"Barret Wallace," Cid laughed, "Don't tell me you're jumping on the 'I'm a pussy' bandwagon. I'll smoke on my ship and I'll drop the butts wherever I damn well want. Follow me to your quarters, where you can do whatever you please there."

The corridor was long and wide – several obese people could easily fit inside, which is what Tifa assumed Cid designed it for: the super wealthy.

"One of the engineers aboard labelled all our rooms for us," Cid laughed as they passed a closed door that read Cait Sith. "Would have been a shame, and a damn waste of material if you had died, Tifa. Ah, here we are."

They reached two rooms, across the hall from each other. One read Tifa Lockheart and the other Barret Wallace. Tifa pressed the green button on her door and it suddenly turned red – the door slid open.

The room was larger than life. A massive, king-sized bed was at the far end – beside a long window that overlooked the ocean below.

Cid walked in behind her. "Hey, kid," he said, "We had an engineer watch television throughout the week. They were filming you while you were under, you know, with brief clips like 'The other member of AVALANCHE has been in a coma since the traumatic events at bla bla bla.' Well, she sized up you and Barret and approximated your whatsitcallits. Measurements. Anyway, the crew here was so excited to take us aboard they bought us all a whole bunch of clothing. There's a few outfits in the closet if you're tired of smelling like gas, sweat and smokes. Your bathroom is that door there, I'll be on the bridge tryin' to coach that idiot Bleer, take your time and get acquainted; we'll be passing over land again in a few hours."

Cid left the room and the door slid closed behind him. Tifa breathed in – the air was fresh and clean. She moved to where Cid had told her the bathroom was – opening the door, she found a tub larger than she'd ever seen – with two sinks, towels and a whole manner of accessories. She moved back into the room and opened the massive walk-in closet lined with clothing of the latest fashions – equipped for all climates. She was so completely awestruck that she was tempted to pinch herself, but the reality that Cloud wasn't there to share this with them dawned on her and she knew that she couldn't be dreaming, or still in her coma. She undressed and filled up the tub. When she slipped into the warm water, she felt exhaustion creep around her eyelids. The grogginess of waking up at the Planet's twilight, to hear the screaming swan song of the Lifestream. To breathe in the painful stench of death – it prodded at her lungs like a million tiny daggers. To be rocked to and fro, to climb and fall and unleash her anger before leaping and missing the rope.

And as she had fallen – the fears of death clutched at her mind. They pulled so fervently that her arms almost retracted. Was it strength of will that had kept her arms out, to catch the rope as it swung back into her clutches after falling for perpetuity? Was it exhaustion that prevented any more movement? Was she just frozen in fear? Or was it hope?

"Too much hope is the opposite of despair," Vincent had said, "An overpowering love may consume you in the end."

An overpowering love. No one on the bridge – not even the crewmen – seemed rattled by Vincent's theory. The elephant-in-the-room wasn't ignored for once. It was obvious to everyone, she realized. Now the only thing to do was to be with him.

She emerged from the bath and wrapped a towel around herself. She looked briefly in the mirror at herself as her knee-length black hair fell in strings around her body – wet and unkempt. Her sinewy arms concealed the power within.

"When did you become such a wimp?" Barret had asked. Tifa examined her arms in the mirror, clutching tightly to the hems of the white linen. Seven days without food or water had taken its toll on her. She moved over to the window, the carpet was soft and forgiving on the balls of her feet, she left damp footprints in the white carpet all the way from the bathroom to the window. She looked out at the Planet.

They were passing over the Corral Valley – Aeris' final resting place. White trees wound through limestone plates as large as cities. It looked as decayed as the inside of an ancient coffin and yet it pulsed with life – Tifa imagined if there was a visually conceivable picture of the Lifestream, the Corral Valley would be it. It was so perfectly harmonious, yet forceful and deliberate at the same time. It was horrifyingly beautiful.

Shortly after, they passed over snowy mountains and the Great Glacier. Tifa looked away – it was yesterday for her that they were consumed by the snow, mourning the death of her dearest friend. The cold had nearly killed them all.

She turned towards the closet and dropped the towel on the floor. As she dressed herself, there was a great sudden lurch and she was knocked swiftly against the wall. Clothes pulled themselves off the shelves and flew towards her and a coat-hanger cut into her skin.

They had – within seconds – stopped completely and lurched backwards, like a car hitting a brick wall. Tifa slumped to the floor as a heap of clothing fell upon her.

A PHS, which was in the pile, crackled to life. _"Wh-what the hell was that?!"_ Cid cried through the PHS, _"That came buzzin' past here like a powerhouse! E-Everyone to the bridge right away!"_

Tifa grabbed the nearest clothes to her and threw them on quickly, a red leather jacket and a longer skirt than she was comfortable fighting in. She tied her hair back and ran out of her room. _The Highwind_ was eerily still as she ran down the hall – her boots clanged obstinately on the steel grating floor.

She ran down past the observation deck to B2 and the rose coloured walkway. Up the stairs to the bridge she ran.

Everyone was gathered at the front of the bridge except the pilots, who were busy trying to keep the ship in hover.

Before them was what looked like pure light, but when Tifa approached the domed windows of the front of the ship and looked down with everyone else.

They were staring at the northern crater. Just as Barret had told her, there was a great barrier of light separating the inside of the crater with everything else. It was also a dome, enclosing the crater in a perfect sphere. The light was blinding.

"We're never gonna get through that," Barret shook his head.

"If Cloud fell into the Lifestream," Nanaki offered, "it is possible that he might emerge elsewhere on the Planet. Seto… my father… once told me that the Lifestream can sometimes materialize near the southern island of Mideel. Perhaps looking there might be useful."

"Anything," Tifa said, "Any leads we have, I want us to follow them."

"All right," Cid said, "But we'll have to refuel before we can travel to the other side of the Planet. Will, set a course for Rocket."

* * *

Shera approached _The Highwind_ as it touched down on the outskirts of town. They gathered on the passenger deck and Cid showed them a compartment underneath the wooden floor with a sturdy-looking rope ladder. He tossed it over the edge and it hit the ground with plenty to spare.

"Captain!" Shera called as Cid reached the ground.

"Hey, Shera."

"They said that AVALANCHE escaped on a hijacked Shinra airship. I just knew you were involved!"

"Just takin' what's mine," Cid smiled at her. We're here to refuel. Care to lend a hand?"

"Of course, Captain. Do you need me aboard the ship? I mean, afterwards?"

"Nope, got a more important job for you. I need you to watch over Rocket in my absence. I've gotta trot around with these kids for a while, but I'll be back. I don't expect Shinra's heel to be hovering over the town when I get back. You just act like old Cid would, y'hear?"

"R-right, Captain!"

"Great, now I could use some tea, and so could fifty or so crewmen."

* * *

The ship was refuelled by nightfall, abetted by Shera's handiwork and hospitality – Cid stayed in his house as Tifa enjoyed sleep in her enormous bed. She had tossed and turned, but thankfully didn't remember what she had dreamt about. When she awoke, the sun was shining through the windows. It was late morning, and they were moving.

There was nothing but ocean again outside the window, and Tifa found that all of her clothes – including the ones she had left in a heap on the bathroom floor – had been washed and hung up in the closet. She dressed herself for humid weather (black mini-skirt and white tank top – her 'uniform') and set out into the rusting corridor.

She wasn't certain why she had left the comfort and silence of her room, but she felt a distinct desire to keep busy. Since the moment AVALANCHE had waltzed through the saloon doors of Seventh Heaven, Tifa hadn't had a night's sleep without feeling something she now had labelled 'the guilt.' A discomfort in idleness, as if she needed to be up and doing something, that she needed to make every moment count.

The only moments that the guilt had left her were on the _Bronco_, when Aeris had occupied most of her moments with chatter, with connection. She didn't feel connected any more, and even standing in the corridor, alone, she felt the guilt rise up within her, begging her to move and do something else. Especially with Meteor approaching, time was of the essence. She felt completely helpless but rushed to do something, anything, before her time was up.

She looked both ways and noticed that a few doors down the corridor – away from the way down to the observation deck – a staircase sprouted up, taking up half the generous width of the corridor (which continued on beyond the staircase father than Tifa could see). Her boots made an unnatural clanking sound against the rusting grate – she trailed her middle finger lazily along the hall – it bumped against the doorframes for Yuffie Kisaragi and Nanaki. There were nine doors in total before the stairs, but only seven rooms were in use. One had been labelled for Cloud; the other was left blank – unoccupied. Out of respect, Tifa reasoned.

At the top of the stairs, Tifa faced a four way split – in front of her were two great double doors. Down the one hallway, there were numerous signs hanging from the ceiling: Apothecary, General, Gift, Materia, Blacksmith. These were shops, and Tifa didn't hesitate before entering the one labelled Materia.

It was empty of persons but fully stocked – green, blue, purple and yellow orbs lined the shelves behind the counter. Tifa was surprised that Yuffie hadn't snatched them all, but since they were to live on the airship now, Tifa reasoned Yuffie could keep track of them with their labels in tact. There were the basic elemental materia, spells that they had all mastered. Some of the green orbs had labels like 'Restore', 'Mystify' and 'Time'. Tifa picked up the restore materia and concentrated upon it. She recognized the energy as a small wave of euphoria washed over her. This was curative magic, Aeris' specialty. Tifa placed it back on the shelf and examined the other greens – each had small descriptions. The 'mystify' spell confused enemies to thinking their allies were enemies – Tifa recalled how the Orunai in the Great Glacier had used that spell on them, crippling them. She remembered the time spell from their fateful showdown with Jenova on the Shinra Cargo Boat – how Yuffie had copied the spell with her strange yellow materia.

Her attention drifted to the blues, all with strange names like 'Elemental', 'Final Attack' and 'Added Effect'. The descriptions weren't much help. Final Attack allowed the unconscious mind to trigger the spell – Tifa mused that a close battle could be won even after being struck down, but the prospect of casting the spell in her sleep caused her to drift away.

The purples were easier to recognize: 'Speed Plus', 'Magic Plus' and 'Underwater', each affecting reaction time, magic prowess and, as she picked up the Underwater materia, she felt her lungs constrict. It was terrifying at first, but soon she realized that she didn't need to breathe, she was siphoning oxygen directly from the air around her. She took note of it and placed it back on the shelf.

There were only two yellow materia: 'Enemy Skill' and 'Sense'. 'Enemy Skill' allowed the caster to 'memorize' spells cast on him/her, and acted as a basic storage device for a myriad of low power spells.

Yuffie.

They all seemed so useful; it felt strange to have so much on their side. She had stared at materia too long and she felt the ever pressing finger of the guilt rise up – urging her out of the room.

The apothecary's shop had no keeper either – it was a quiet collection of potions of all colours, for every need. There was an entire wall dedicated to phoenix downs, another to remedies and there were boxes upon boxes of green potions – Tifa was an amateur at potion brewing, but she could tell at a glance that this recipe had been perfected. She picked up a vile and examined it – it was nearly transparent it had been blended so well – when she tilted it a certain way the vile looked empty. Tifa uncorked it and wafted the scent of the potion towards her. It was almost sweet. Truly this was what Cloud had been talking about when he mentioned quality potions (in protest of drinking her concoctions). She supposed that SOLDIERs drank those with their breakfasts each morning.

Only Cloud had never been a SOLDIER. What Sephiroth had said – it had made perfect sense. Cloud only seemed to remember things after Tifa had told him about them. He hadn't remembered the promise before their confrontation after the first bombing mission. He had collapsed in the Sector 5 reactor – the moment that Tifa recalled briefly the death of her father. When he told them his version of the story, Tifa had been in the room with him. She had always been there, feeding him memories to play off of.

But something itched at the back of her mind, something about Sephiroth's truth wasn't quite right either. She just needed more time to figure it out – she cursed the world for throwing everything upon her at once. If they had only taken it in small doses – during their amblings through the Grasslands, or the weeks spent on _The Tiny Bronco_.

The guilt returned. She had lingered too long in the shop. She left the apothecary's and ignored the gift shop and the blacksmith's. She had no need for weapons, she was a living weapon. She also had no need for a tourist t-shirt that read I Love Highwind. She had a flutter that Cid would never let her live it down.

Smiling, she walked to the end of the hallway, where a window showed her the vast ocean. There was a line of green on the horizon that Tifa noticed just before the intercom in the hallway crackled to life.

"We'll be arriving at Mideel in approximately one hour," Will Bleer said nervously through the speaker box grafted in the top corner of the hallway.

"No, you idiot!" Cid barked suddenly through the speaker box. "Only I and Tifa get to use the intercom! Ahem, this is the Captain speaking. We're flying over the crystal blue waters of the Emerald Sea and everythin' is tiggidy fucking boo. Approximate arrival time sixty minutes. Approximate get-your-ass-in-gear time is thirty minutes. AVALANCHE, head to the bridge soon. Over and out."

Tifa turned and headed back towards the staircase but stopped again in front of the double doors, thinking for only a moment before striding through them.

The hall was so brazen and pretentious that Tifa suddenly forgot that she was in an airship. The grandiose round tables were folded up and stacked against the walls – which were gold or bronze or something. This was what people paid money for, she wagered. There was a bandstand at the far edge of the room – numerous instruments had been left to collect dust – including a grand black piano the likes of which Tifa had never played. She made her way over to the piano, looking up as the great chandelier passed over her head. When she was directly under it, she likened it to the fireworks at the Gold Saucer – she had watched them from her window in the Ghost Hotel. It was as if a massive crystal had cracked, exploded, and then suddenly frozen as the shards stopped mid-air in all directions.

After it passed, however, she saw the strings holding the shards up and her neck hurt to crane back so far, and she looked back at the piano. When she reached it, she looked around the room before sitting on the bench – as if there would be someone there to stop her. She wasn't used to this free reign of things. The guilt crept up on her again.

The piano seat creaked as she shifted to get comfortable. Lifting the cover, she didn't think before rolling her left hand through an arpeggio that filled the hall with life again. Suddenly the numbness of desertion that the room had struck her washed away and it almost didn't seem like the tables had been put away. Her right hand joined in, a slow, harrowing melody. She was improvising, playing with a charming arpeggio, but the song spoke of sadness, of the tranquility in loss. She fancied herself decent at song-writing, but her father had never let her pursue it as she had dearly wanted to. Instead, when at home, she concentrated more on cooking and cleaning and production of remedial items, than on the arts.

She had somehow begun playing a song she knew well, she hadn't been thinking and the fingers found the melody themselves. The ivory was light beneath her fingers, obeying every twitch. She had forgotten briefly about the guilt, the music soothed her. She played until the song ended, and dropped her arms to her sides. The last notes echoed until she sat in silence, one last crick from the piano seat's legs rang out and she was alone again.

* * *

"Begin descent," Cid called lazily from the depression, he was chatting idly with Nanaki. Tifa joined them and they talked about whether or not Marlboros, the poisonous plant-monsters, should be exterminated. Tifa wondered whether Cid was just being argumentative when he said he was all for it. Tifa reasoned that everyone was feeling a little restless.

As the rest of the hour flew by (and thankfully the welfare of malevolent plant-life wasn't the only topic of conversation) the ship stopped in hover and they were close enough to the ground for them to extend the ladder on the observation deck.

"Your orders?" Cid asked, as if Tifa was commandeering his ship.

"Uh, Cid and Barret," Tifa announced, "I want you to come with me. Everyone else, guard the ship."

'_Was this what Cloud__ felt like?'_ Tifa thought, _'When we named him leader? He handled it so flawlessly.'_

Cid and Barret followed Tifa up the stairs to the passenger deck as she pondered this – and the reasons why Barret wasn't putting up a struggle for leadership. Everyone was treating Tifa with such courtesy – as if tending to a wounded child. Everyone, of course, except Vincent. Tifa smiled at his integrity, it was better than babying her.

Yuffie was still on the observation deck, sitting against the rails covering her mouth with her ornamental sleeve. She gave them a weak thumb up before following them to the rope.

"Stay here, princess," Cid said, "three at a time go on a mission. You got to do the last one, now it's my turn."

"I'll stay with the ship," Yuffie said frowning, "I'll guard the bottom of the rope – how's that?"

Tifa looked over the rail – they were above tropical foliage. She climbed over the rail first and slid down as she watched _The Highwind_ shrink above her.

She hit the ground too quickly and rolled into a rock – she heard a crunching sound. After a few moments, she felt something warm trickling down her back. It was blood – her blood. It was only when she pulled away from the rock that she realized that something had speared between the back of her ribs – when it ripped back out of her the adrenaline kicked in and the pain only increased her temper.

With incredible force, Tifa kicked the rock and it tipped over. To her surprise – there were six legs underneath which straightened the thing out – and it turned to face her. One of its six horns was stained with her blood and it drooled down the stony smooth shell that encased the creature.

"Tifa's hurt!" Barret called up as he slid down the rope behind her.

The creature moved slowly and that gave Tifa enough time to run out of adrenaline, at which point she really felt the puncture wound in her back. She was losing quite a lot of blood.

Cid dropped from the sky and landed with one foot on either side of the creature. He was nearly sitting on it, and held his spear tightly with both hands – the tip of the spear had disappeared inside the creatures innards.

Cid pulled the spear out of the animal and it collapsed. He turned to Tifa and – while still holding the spear, held one hand out towards her. He clenched his fist and Tifa could see the green materia stone in his spear begin to glow. She wasn't sure whether it was the blood loss that ceased the pain or if her suspicions were correct and Cid was using curative magic. All she knew at that moment was that she felt great – the pain and fear and anger were gone. When it ceased, she felt normal.

Cid smiled at her. "How are you feeling?"

"…You cast a spell on me."

"Yepperoni!" Cid laughed, "Pretty damn powerful one, too, considering I cast it. You were more hurt than you think."

He walked over to a tree and lit a match on the bark.

"How… how did you…?"

"We can all do it," Barret arrived at the bottom of the rope, "Ever since the Northern Crater. All that magic energy flowin' through us musta muddled up our systems or somethin'."

"More like poisoned," Yuffie was close behind Barret – she still sounded queasy, but was noticeably better. "You were in a coma, Tifa, but you got the best of it. I think all of us had a pretty rough week – Rufus included."

"I felt sick as a dog," Cid said, "Although I thought it was because of that Meteor, you know, I thought I was scared or some shit."

"Everyone except Nanaki and Vincent were pretty sick," Yuffie admitted, "Even the crew on the ship. Those closest to the centre of the crater when it happened—"

"Meaning us!" Cid interjected.

"We all seem to know how to use materia now," Barret finished.

"We've all got curative magic on us now," Cid explained, "Since we figure we'll get into a couple more scrapes and without… well, without someone who's really good at healing, it would be wise to have a bunch of people who aren't bad at it."

"Where were you when everyone was tellin' me all that happened?" Barret asked.

"Me? I was..." _'I was afraid to see everyone.'_ "…exploring the ship."

"Well, numbskulls. Mideel's this way. Follow ol' Cid."

* * *

The first thing Tifa saw was a wooden overpass – it seemed to come out of the trees ahead. When she came underneath it, she saw that it connected two buildings made of deep red wood. She could hear a distant dog barking and the faint wark of a chocobo from inside one of the buildings.

The only person in town seemed to be an old man in a rocking chair outside of a building. He was wearing the strangest thing Tifa had ever seen. From head to toe he was wearing a woollen cherry-red jumper and his beard was braided with rainbow beads.

Cid shuddered, "It's just like Rocket. I'm beginning to think the whole world is made outta old people."

"You are old people," Barret laughed.

"I'm only thirty-two!" Cid cried.

"Yer gettin' there, Cid. Better have kids quick 'fore you get flaccid. I'll bet Shera—"

"Shut yer' trap, hillbilly."

The old man was looking at them now, but his attention was focused on Tifa, "Hey there, ain't you a beaut!"

"Hi," Tifa said.

"Welcome to Mideel," said the man, "Did you come here for the hot springs?"

"Uh, no."

"Darn, I haven't toured the hot springs in so long. Nobody comes to Mideel anymore, I hear there is major turmoil in the world out there. Not here, though, everything is still nice and quiet here. Well, except for the earthquakes, and the second moon."

"You mean Meteor?"

"I guess that's what you'd call it. Most folks in town don't think it's gonna fall on us, but it gets a little bigger every day. It takes an old wise eye to see it."

"It's headed this way," Tifa sighed.

"Everything must come to an end some day," the old man said, "Someday it will be your turn, too. Everybody leaves at one time or another, and everyone has to be left. It's sad, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"Those hot springs," Cid asked, "Any idea where they come from?"

The old man looked down at Cid's clothing with incredulity. "Hot springs are just made of gas that's released from the centre of the Planet; it bubbles up and heats the water."

Cid gave a meaningful glance at Tifa and said, "Yeah, we'll take you up on your tour offer. Give us an hour to look around town and we'll get back to you."

There were no roads in Mideel, and only a handful of buildings. There were certainly dirt paths made from years of walking. The dog that Tifa had heard earlier was moving towards her slowly.

"What's the matter?" Tifa asked it, "Are you all alone?"

The dog whimpered, famished.

"You got lost, didn't you?" She knelt down and the dog smelled her face, "Separated from the one you love? Silly thing…"

"…guess it's been about a week now since he washed up here on the shore... poor kid."

There were men talking a few metres down, each holding a bottle in their hands. They were younger than thirty, each dressed as unusually as the old man – one had a lime-green overcoat and the other a rounded helmet made of wood. Tifa continued to scratch behind the dog's ear, but listened to them.

"Yeah," the other one agreed, "It was really sad, but weird. He had that big sword."

"Yeah, man. And did you see those eyes? I mean, the whole thing feels unlucky to me, but did you catch those weird blue eyes?"

"W-wait a minute!" Tifa was now walking towards them, "What did you just say?"

The men stopped and eyeballed her up and down a moment, each flummoxed at seeing a stranger. They didn't speak – one of them didn't take his eyes off her chest.

"Excuse me," Tifa commanded her space, "That young man you were just talking about?"

"Yeah, a villager found him a little ways down the coast by the hot springs. It was about a week ago I think."

"Cloud! It must be Cloud!"

Cid and Barret looked at each other. "Heh," Cid smirked, "Good job, Tifa."

"You sure?" Barret posed.

"So where is he? Is he safe?! Where is he now?"

The man who was fixed on her body pointed behind him, "Yeah, he's up there at the, uh, clinic."

"He's alive!" Tifa cried, "Cloud! Cloud's alive!"

She dashed off towards the clinic before Barret could call after her. Cid and Barret sighed and followed suite.

* * *

There was no door to the clinic, and Tifa was shouting his name all the way there. By the time she ran inside and gave a final "Cloud?!" Doctor Gnar Emitebb was already looking at her with disbelief.

"Here now," Emitebb said, "The way you're running around here, you'd think the second moon fell or something."

"I'm sorry," Tifa caught her breath, "I thought a friend of mine was being taken care of here."

Emitebb crossed his arms. He was wearing what Tifa thought to be regular clothing by her standards aside from his mustard coloured pants. The recognizable white coat is what made him stand out as a doctor. "A friend?" he pondered, "Ah yes, that young fellow? Yellow hair, purple dungarees?"

Tifa's heart leapt into her throat and she barely managed a squeak as she nodded.

"Don't worry, now," Emitebb smiled, "Your friend is in the room just there, but I'm afraid his condition is…" He trailed off because Tifa was already pulling back the lime-green curtain to the next room where nurse Dellandra Hatcheraal crouched over the boy.

Tifa ran and Dellandra moved to allow her to see him.

There was no mistaking that this was the same Cloud who had aided in summoning Meteor. He was slumped inside a wheelchair and his head bobbed forward.

"Cloud! I'm so glad you're safe!"

Cloud lifted his head to see her, but his eyes were blank and he barely caught sight of her before his head bobbed forward again like a children's toy. He swung it to and fro looking around with unseeing eyes.

He hadn't said anything to her. "Cloud?" she asked.

The sounds that emerged from between his lips were more expulsions of air than anything else, he slurred out vowel sounds and his head swivelled loosely on his neck before bobbing cretinously back into place. "Uh… aa…"

"Wh… what's wrong, Cloud?"

"A… gurk?"

"Cloud?! What happened to you?"

"Mako poisoning," Emitebb said. Tifa looked back at him. He was flanked by Barret and Cid, all looking at her condescendingly. Emitebb continued, "Quite an advanced case. It appears that this man has been exposed to a high level of mako energy for a protracted period of time. He probably has no idea who or where he is now. Poor fellow, his voice doesn't even work. He's leagues away from us. Some place where no one's ever been… all alone."

There was a long period of silence – Cloud's wheelchair squeaked as he bobbed his head feverishly.

"Thanks for the uplifting description there, doc." Cid shook his head.

"Ahem," the doctor turned to them, "Let's excuse ourselves, shall we?"

They walked out of the clinic. Tifa rested her head on his knees and soaked them with tears.

"Cloud! What do you want me to do? Please Cloud, talk to me. Tell me… that you see me, that you can hear me. Tell me, please. I came this far believing in the memories we have together. This isn't happening, this is too cruel. Cloud, please, I..."

* * *

"So what about him?" Barret hung up the PHS, he had roughly communicated Cloud's condition to everyone on _The Highwind_. "What about Cloud?"

"I'll say it again," Emitebb sighed, "He's got mako poisoning – I've never seen a case this bad. An immense amount of mako-drenched knowledge was put into his brain all at once. No normal human could have survived it – it's a miracle that he did!"

"No wonder," Barret said, "After fallin' in the Lifestream an' bein' washed up here."

"But remember, the light of hope can be found anywhere. If you give up hope, what will happen to him?"

"Hope…" Barret repeated, then turned to Cid, "Hey, but honestly, man… Do I really want him to come back? What did he do for this world? What can he do for us from here on out? He may be nothing more than Sephiroth's shadow."

"Is something wrong?" Emitebb asked.

"No, nothin'. Nothin' at all, doc."

Tifa stepped out of the clinic and they all faced her. Her cheeks were flushed but she had a stern look on her face, the strong look that Barret recognized when he first met her. She didn't speak for a long time. Barret asked, "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm sorry that I had you all worried… and I have something I want to tell you all."

She turned on her heel and re-entered the clinic. Everyone followed – Emitebb and Dellandra as well.

Tifa stood behind the wheelchair and Cloud inadvertently bobbed his head. Tifa pursed her lips and said firmly. "I don't care about anything else. Only Cloud… I want to be by his side. So I'm quitting. I'm out. I don't want the luxury of _The Highwind_. I don't want the responsibility of leadership. I don't want to be a hero, I don't want to do anything. I've felt nothing but hatred and anger and fear for five years. I'm tired of the taste of tears. I need this, I need him… So I'll be staying here in Mideel."

Barret paused for a moment. "That's probably best. For him… and for you."

Cid smiled. "Yeah. Right. Hang in there, kid."

Tifa looked at them, "Tell everyone that I'm sorry. At a time like this…"

"Don't worry," Cid assured her, "I'll drop _The Highwind_ by sometime."

Tifa smiled.

"You take care now, Tifa," Barret said, "An' take care of Cloud."

"Right."

There was another pause, with only the squeaking of Cloud's wheelchair.

"Well, I guess we should get back to _The Highwind_, then," Cid said.

Barret nodded and turned to leave. He stopped at the doorway and swivelled his head to look at her. "Tifa, I don't like askin' this, but… is he really your childhood friend? And not Sephiroth's shadow?"

Tifa held her breath for a moment and looked at the man in the wheelchair, "Well… that is… I'm… yes. I'm sure of it."

Barret nodded back, "Yeah? Okay, sorry for askin' then."

They waded through the jungles, leaving Tifa and Cloud in Mideel.


	113. Book 5: The Turncoat

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 6  
**

**The Turncoat**

Barret stood at the tip of the bridge watching Mideel grow as small as a dot. With a lurch, _The Highwind_ moved forward and the southern island thinned out until they were once again gliding over the ocean.

"Where's our next destination?" Barret asked.

Cid shrugged. Barret looked up at Meteor, which, despite their rising altitude, wasn't getting any bigger. That was a good thing, Barret reasoned, it meant it was really far away.

"What are we gonna do now?" Barret turned back to everyone. Yuffie had barely made it on to the bridge before they had begun to move – she kept her eyes fixed out the window, trying to orient herself (she was finding it difficult). Aside from Bleer and the rest of the crew, Barret only recognized five people. He realized that he was the only person on the ship that had been in Midgar when this mess had begun – he was the only one who had seen the destruction of Sector 7, who had ever known Biggs, Wedge and Jessie. He was the only one who hadn't been recruited along the way by Cloud.

"What can _we_ do?" he asked, "Huh? Ain't there nothin' we can do? And don't go tellin' me to wait for Cloud to get better."

"I don't understand," Nanaki shook his head – his mohawked mane waved in front of his eye. "Why did Tifa leave? Isn't it her duty to save the Planet?"

"I know why," Yuffie offered, "She left because she's not special anymore."

"What?!" Barret shrieked.

"You heard me. We can all use materia now, since Weapon awoke. Before, Tifa was something of an elitist – she was one of the only humans on the Planet that could use magic. But now, she's just a shmoe like all of us. Without Cloud here, I'll bet she felt really lonely, even around us."

"Tifa ain't a shmoe. I thought you were friends."

"Wh-whatever. We can get along fine without Cloud, Tifa or… well, the point is that we can all use magic now, so we don't need them to be special."

Mog bounded forward and Cait Sith yelled reproachfully, "What the hell are you talkin' about?! These are people, our friends you're insulting, not numbers, not statistics. Cloud and Tifa are more than just their usefulness in battle. Jeez, for the self-proclaimed 'good guys' I'm sure not seeing a lot of compassion here."

"You're one to talk, ya damn Shinra spy!"

"Shut up, all'ya!" Cid barked from behind Bleer.

"I'm asking," Nanaki stepped forward, "Because I thought we were trying to save the Planet."

"You're so damn idealistic it hurts my insides," Cid laughed, "Tifa's a human, Nanaki, not one of your kind. We're selfish, arrogant, greedy fucks. Sure, saving the world sounds all good and fun, but things look damn bleak, even from the sky. She wants to be with her man, so let her be with him."

"I wouldn't know of such things…" Nanaki said slowly, remembering that he was the last known member of his species.

"When we're idle, we can be cruel to one another." Vincent said coldly from the back of the bridge – even though he spoke softly his voice carried throughout the large dome.

"Vinnie's right," Yuffie sighed – Vincent twitched at the nickname, "We shouldn't fight. Hey, I've got an idea. There's, like, a million gil on this ship, right? Let's go to the Gold Saucer and spend it all!"

"The Gold Saucer is closed," Cait Sith said, "Dio closed it the day Meteor appeared; he's been in a depressed funk, I even heard he's wearing clothes now."

"That's a damn shame," Cid said through his cigarette.

"But I get what you guys are saying," Cait Sith continued, "We need a common goal or else we'll tear each other apart in these dark times. I think I might have some news."

"What?" Barret snapped, "That you a spy?"

"Yeah, I already told you that I was… but it looks like both 'Gya ha ha' and 'Kya ha ha' are up to something. Wanna eavesdrop?"

* * *

Heidegger and Palmer sat beside each other, looking at each other and not speaking – they were almost sizing each other up. Scarlet sat across from them, her hollow, bony face seemed all the more emaciated when observed beside Heidegger and Palmer. She was a skeleton in a vermillion cocktail dress. Reeve sat at Rufus' right but the president had pushed his chair back and was staring out the window of the board room on the sixty-sixth floor of Shinra Headquarters. There was a crack in the glass from the reactor's explosion – it was the weekend and it wouldn't be repaired until Monday. Rufus sighed, flipped his hair and turned to face his executives; they were all there except Hojo.

"Now, then… we are faced with two issues. Number one is to destroy Meteor. Two, remove the barrier around the Promised Land and defeat Sephiroth. Any ideas?"

"Gya ha haa!" Heidegger laughed in response, "We've already solved the first problem. Meteor will soon be destroyed – the plan has already been put in motion. Namely, to collect huge materia from each region."

"Huge materia?"

"Huge materia is a high density special type of materia made through a special compression process in mako reactors," Scarlet made an 'I caught a fish _this big_' gesture and explained, "The energy extracted from it is three hundred and thirty times the strength of normal materia. Kya ha ha! How about that?"

"We'll gather all the huge materia and ram it into Meteor," Heidegger finished.

Rufus sat in his chair, still silent. He was waiting for more information. Scarlet finally opened her piranha-like jaw and said, "That will cause a huge explosion, reducing Meteor literally to bits."

"You're going to ram into Meteor?" Rufus asked, "Do you think we have the technology to do it?"

"Don't worry about that," Scarlet smirked, "More importantly, we've got to collect huge materia from each area."

"We've already collected materia from Nibel," Heidegger offered eagerly, "All that's left is Corel and Tooth Rock. I've already dispatched troops to Corel!" With that, he laughed in his usual unusual way and Rufus cringed.

"Is there anything else to report?" the president asked. There was silence, "All right, thank you for meeting me here on such short notice, I'll be in my office if any of you need me."

They left the board room, completely unaware that one of them was bugged.

* * *

"Corel?!" Barret cried after Mog's mouth slid shut and the transmission ended. "What else can they do to Corel?! Can't let Shinra fuck up Corel again, and can't let 'em get a hold of the huge materia! Besides, when Cloud gets back, I wanna show him the huge materia. He's gonna be shocked."

Cait Sith had shut down temporarily so that the puppet-master could return to his office before speaking with them again. When he sprang to life again, the crewman scrambled to their stations to stabilize the interference. The cat looked at Barret, "So what are you saying?" he asked, "Even though you're always knocking him, you really want Cloud to return?"

Barret's eyes widened, "I ain't sayin' nothin' 'bout nothin'. You just… shut your face! Every group's gotta have a leader. An' that's me!" He pounded his chest, "But Shinra's attackin' two places at once, now. I'm goin' to Corel so looks like we need a new leader. An' that's what is…"

Cait Sith hopped away, surprised. Cid, who had been slumped against the glass, taking a nap, awoke to find everyone looking at him.

"Hmph? Wha? What's goin' on?"

Barret nodded, "You been chosen to be the new leader."

"Pain in the ass. Forget it."

"But for us to fight, we gotta have _The Highwind_, and you. We need it to save the Planet. An' who's runnin' this ship? You! That's why you're our new leader. Ain't no one else can."

"This ship's gonna save the Planet, huh? Ain't that gonna be just a little tough? Oh man, that went straight to my heart. I'm a man, too. Okay, I'll do it."

"Good," Barret smiled, "I'm goin' to Corel to stop them from meddling, and you gotta take _The Highwind_ to Fort Condor."

"Someone should accompany you, Barret," Nanaki said.

"You in for the job?" Barret asked.

"Gladly," said the beast.

"I'll go as well," Vincent swept past Nanaki, "Six members of the party. Three to a mission."

"Like Cait Sith's gonna be any fuckin' use," Cid snarled.

"You get to keep the airship," Barret explained, "Now get us the hell to North Corel."

* * *

Barret stayed in his room until they reached Corel – he paced until the carpet was threadbare, worn underneath his boots. Like the grass all over the world. Barret recalled speaking with elder Hargo about grass years ago – Hargo had told him that grass was the most evolved form of life – even when brown and trampled, its roots go so deep, its blades so many, that it will never die. Barret thought of Meteor smashing into the Planet, the land being washed away with fire. Would the grass survive? If Spirit Energy were to be gathered to heal the wound, would the Planet kill the grass to heal its shape? If it didn't, would the Planet hurl away into space, unbalanced? These things confused Barret, he thought about this often but never had any answers, and no real way of assuring himself that his questions were valid.

There came a knock on his door and he answered. The oval door slid open and the robotic cat stood on the grated walkway out the door.

"Come in," Barret huffed, "But take your shoes off."

"Very funny," Cait Sith stepped inside. "We'll reach North Corel in ten minutes."

"Why didn't Cid just say it over the intercom?" Barret asked.

"I wanted to come tell you myself," Cait Sith nodded.

"Do you want an apology?" Barret asked.

"I don't know what I want. I want to save the Planet, but I've spent my whole life following the way of the world as it is. For the Planet to be saved, I would have to give up everything that I've worked on. It's a hard thing to do. You've made that leap of faith, it just interests me."

"Thanks for the speech, cat. In case you haven't noticed, you kidnapped my daughter. I don't really feel like shootin' the shit with the likes of you."

"Oh."

There was a pregnant pause.

"You know we saw you?" Barret finally said, "Before we met you. I shoulda known you looked familiar, but I never figured it out until jes' now."

"What do you mean you saw me?"

"Rufus was crossin' the ocean back in January. He was on some business on the West Continent. Anyway, we was fightin' Jenova in the cargo bay of this boat, right? An' you an' Mog spilled out of this box that the monster destroyed. You were prob'ly on your way to set up a trap for us, eh?"

"Actually," Cait Sith laughed, "Rufus' whole reason for crossing the ocean was to deliver me to spy on Dio. It was kind of a coincidence that Cloud stumbled upon me. I had already learned that Dio wasn't connected with the resistance, so I improvised. I guess it was luck, or fate."

"Luck. Fate. Was it fate that you kidnapped Marlene?"

"That was luck too. They were going to be executed in the slums."

"Executed?!"

"Yeah, Corneo's successor really had it out for Cloud, was trying to kill everyone who helped him out – even though it was Cloud who put him in power in the first place."

"I don't care about that shit. What happened to Marlene?!"

"Well, he caught her and Elmyra and tried to kill them in front of a huge crowd. The Turks rescued them and brought them to headquarters – where they would be safe."

"And used as a bargaining tool."

"That as well."

"I'm tired of talkin' about your connivin' plot to dupe us."

"Suit yourself," the cat turned tail and walked out of the oval room, leaving Barret to his torment.


	114. Book 5: The Train With No Brakes

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 7  
**

**The Train With No Brakes**

The only sound was the wind - like the old whistle of a train - cutting through the chasm. It made the silence all the thicker.

The two Shinra guards stood lazily at the train's entrance to the reactor. Old trains had carried coal in and out before Shinra had altered the reactor to consume mako, which was more fuel efficient than coal and – in the eyes of the world – better for the environment.

Three figures were moving towards them – they had appeared on the horizon long ago, ambling slowly towards the reactor. They hadn't paid any mind to them – one of the guards was thinking of nothing but his depleted stomach – lunch wasn't for another hour.

The other guard was becoming increasingly irritated by a smear of dust on his blue uniform. It was right near his right shoulder and he breathed deeply, trying to forget about it. It nagged at him though – he couldn't stand for dust. After all, in his flat in Sector 3, he had given up his cable bills to hire a maid to clear out dust three times a day. His mind drifted to sex with the maid, and then the dust on his uniform, then having the maid dust it off while having sex with him. He shuffled his feet and dust curled around the ankles of his uniform. Ankles were okay, he had agreed to a desert job after all. But the smear on his shoulder, so close to his face! He took his supporting hand off his gun and wiped at the smear. There was dust on his glove and the smear only became bigger. He took his hand away quickly, even more irritated.

The figures were larger now, one of them was a wolf or dog or something. The hungry guard's stomach gave an unappreciative gurgle.

There was a snapping sound in the distance, a loud crack that bounced off the rock walls. The sound had startled the dusty guard so much he didn't notice that something had hit him before his shoulder became warm and wet. He looked down and saw that he was bleeding profusely from his shoulder – the blood washed away the dust on his uniform as it soaked through, colouring the uniform a terrifying purple. Upon registering that he was wounded, the pain shot through him and buckled him to his knees as another crack rang through the chasm and the guard beside him slumped to the ground – dead.

The three figures were still far away. One of them, shrouded by a crimson cape, gripped a smoking pistol. Even if the guard hadn't dropped his gun, they would have been out of range. Beside the shooter there was a giant with a gun for an arm – matching the description of Barret the Blackhearted.

"AVALANCHE is here!" he cried inside before the second bullet went through his skull – he saw blood and bits of brain spill on the ground before him and then nothingness.

There was silence as the figures drew closer to the reactor, arriving at the corpses. The sand had soaked up the blood and it had dried brown and black.

"Damn!" Barret shouted, "Shoulda killed him 'fore he could warn them!"

"You'll notice I didn't miss a single shot," Vincent uttered – not bragging, but baiting Barret.

"Enough," Nanaki said, "I hear something."

There was a loud whistling coming from within the reactor – a whistling Barret recognized as that of a train.

"Shit!" he cried and scrambled off the tracks just to the side of the door as a coal train burst out of the entranceway, cutting the guard's bodies up and sending them rolling at Vincent's feet.

The train was old – the black paint was chipped and worn; black smoke trailed away from the funnel. Three cars barrelled along behind it – each overfull with coal. It was obvious that the train had not been in use in four years.

"Looks like they're taking the huge materia in that train," Vincent offered.

"NO!" Barret gasped, "Ya damn boneheads!"

"Did we just lose it?" Nanaki asked.

Barret snorted, "Hey, do you know who I am? I'm goddamn Barret, that's who the hell I am. Let me handle it!"

He lumbered inside the reactor as the train began to shrink in the distance.

By the time Nanaki and Vincent had caught up with him, Barret was standing among bodies aplenty – he was stop a handcar fastened on the tracks. The room they were in was lined with monitors – the bodies were wearing white coats, which perturbed Nanaki until he noticed that they were all holding pistols.

"Get the hell on here!" Barret cried, and Vincent and Nanaki leapt onto the wooden handcar. Barret pushed down on the pulley with his one arm.

"Need a little help here!"

Vincent took the other side of the pulley and pushed down. The handcar moved slowly out of the reactor and picked up speed rapidly.

"Can we catch up with the train on this?" Nanaki asked, but his voice was lost in the wind. The answer seemed to be yes, because the train – slowed by the presence of the coal cars – was getting closer.

Barret's and Vincent's arms were moving at lightning speed – they were moving so quickly that Vincent's cape blew behind him horizontally. Nanaki had to close his eye because the wind had dried it. After some time, the train was less than a metre away.

"All right!" Barret ordered, "Now everyone jump!"

Nanaki opened his eye and looked up at the top of the train. A Shinra MP poked his head over and pulled back. They were up there, ready to fire. "They're waiting for us," Nanaki warned but jumped anyway.

It didn't take as long as he thought to fly up to the top of the car – he landed on a mound of coal and two MPs fired at him. One bullet pierced the hump over his left leg and he roared in pain and fury. As quick as fire, Nanaki had grabbed one of the MPs legs and shook him until he fell from the speeding train. The other fired but missed and Nanaki scratched him until he too, fell backwards off of the car.

Vincent floated up and landed on the coal; Barret's gun-arm came over the edge as he clambered up the back end of the train. Vincent walked casually up to where Nanaki was – his cape violently thrashed behind him but he did not seem affected by the wind. Barret struggled against the gales.

Nanaki led the way across the top of the cars, each mounding with coal. As Barret's massive boots clumped over the black dunes, the individual coal pieces – which looked like pebbles beneath his feet – crumbled and slid away. Vincent was light-footed and the coals were not affected by his weight. Barret could not construe how he was not at the mercy of the ruthless wind. He noticed Nanaki bleeding ahead and closed his eyes. He could feel energy flowing towards him as he deliberated on healing Nanaki's wound. He had never felt such a thing before.

All at once, the problems of the world seemed to lift as all spirit energy – woven together like a great tapestry – was immediately at peace. The threads of life dwindled towards him. He was no longer Barret Wallace, he was merely a piece of thread in the larger tapestry. He could not comprehend why it was, or what it was. He wasn't sure what any of it meant, but it had something to do with the Lifestream. The wound on Nanaki's haunch seemed a frivolous problem, easily mended. As simple as nodding his head, Barret made it so.

The instant that it happened, he snapped back into who he was. Immediately, like a dream, the revelation slipped from his memory and he only had a faint hint that something profound had happened to him. He knew that for a few moments, he was much older and wiser than the stars, and that being in such a state upon a moving train was a dangerous position indeed.

He continued over the coals, crunching his way to the front of the train.

The front of the train could only fit one man. The driver of the train stood at the tiny station, pulling levers. He mopped his brow with a dirty rag and set it back down upon the floor, completely unaware that behind him – and above – Barret had his gun trained on him.

"Hand it over," Barret grunted through his beard.

The driver froze, holding his breath. Barret swore he saw his hand twitch, but before any of them could do anything, the driver spun around and tossed something up at them.

The grenade exploded before it reached them – too soon for the driver's liking, as he was pierced with the shrapnel. A fresh cut appeared in Nanaki's empty eye socket and all three of them were knocked back. Vincent was quick to heal them – although this closed the wound, once again, around a fragment inside of Nanaki's socket and the unsightly gash was widened. Barret was used to the feeling of being healed – he had suffered through Tifa's homemade potions and felt elated through Aeris' magical healing many times. You didn't need to have some connection to the universe to be healed – you only had to have a physical form. This was much less taxing on Barret's mind after the fact. When the pleasant feeling washed away, he wasn't afraid or unsure. He wasn't thinking about anything but the mission at hand.

This was fortunate because from both sides of the car a roboguard appeared and began to fire a particle beam in their direction.

Barret tried to leap out of the way but wasn't quick enough. He felt the scolding hotness of the particle beam hit the bare skin of his lower back – between his jacket and tasset. Suddenly, however, the pain stopped and he landed with a crunching noise on the coals. Barret looked over at where the beam had gone and realized that Vincent had leapt in front of the blast – taking the full of it.

As the beam tore through Vincent's clothing, his red cape flew away. The buckles and belts holding his black clothing together exploded outwards and underneath was a squat, hunched figure clothed in rags.

Barret's mind drifted to a summon spell – those terrifying lords of the elements that Cloud had been able to conjure if he tried hard enough. With Vincent, it was different. Vincent had monsters inside of him, as ruthless and indestructible as Jenova herself.

This was a new creature, not the deathly Gigas they had encountered in the Temple of the Ancients, nor the Galian beast that had made short work of the ancient materia keeper. This was a new creature – the most humanoid of them all, and even though his back was to Barret, malice seeped from beneath his rags.

And then, out of sight, a great clanking, buzzing noise was heard, like the sound of heavy machinery. It reminded Barret horribly of the sounds of the machines that had sawed off his lump of a forearm. Like the drills that had cut deep into Mount Corel's chasm to plant their poisonous reactors inside the rock walls.

There was a horrible grating sound and the roboguard that had been concealed by the demon's back fell to pieces. Sparks trailed away like blood from the severed head – the red sensory strip in place of eyes still scanning as it was flung off the edge and onto the dusty rocks below the train.

Vincent turned around and looked at the roboguard behind Barret. But Barret was no longer interested in any danger from roboguards.

The creature had no face. It might have had features that should belong to a human face, but they were concealed behind a blank white mask – like a plate – in the front of its head. The sagged, overtired eyes were where the mouth should have been, and the forehead was frowning with jagged, yellowed teeth and green gums. As soon as Barret had time to register that the face was put together wrong, he noticed that it had changed completely. The eye sockets had wandered up to the side of his face – and the holes in the mask had moved with them as liquid as moving a stick in water. The mouth had drooled down from the forehead to the right cheek – vertical, like a horrific vaginal opening down the face – an axe wound lined with crusty, chipping teeth.

And they moved fluently to where features on a human proper should be. Even if they hadn't continued to move right along down the other side, Barret _still_ would have screamed. Because when the face had been upside-down, the wide, bloodshot eyes hadn't been staring straight through his into his brain; the mouth hadn't been twisted unnaturally up in a bloodthirsty grin.

After glancing for just a few seconds at the rotating face, roboguards seemed like mosquitoes.

Barret screamed in terror, he could not control himself. He was paralyzed with fright. Vincent had no control over this demon with hell's mask. Images flooded through Barret's mind, of Vincent never escaping from within this monster – of the thirst, the thousand-year thirst for blood which would never be quenched unless he had killed everything with blood to spill.

The weapon he held would be a dangerous end. The handle was clunky and square, but it seemed to be a rounded sword. The noise was coming from the hilt – which vibrated and clattered, moving a chain of smaller blades along the rounded edges of the sword. It was an automated saw – Barret had seen one or two chopping down trees in old Corel forest.

To use it on a human was crueller than Sephiroth. To die at the end of that thing made Meteor seem like a decent second option.

As the eyes rounded down his jaw, and the tuft of hair on his otherwise bald head morphed into a scraggly beard, the hell-masker grabbed the chainsaw with both hands and threw it straight through the air. If Barret had been standing, it would have impaled his stomach – even lying down, there was nothing to stop him from thinking that the airborne weapon would not fall on his head.

There was the sickening grinding noise again right by his ear and a sparks rained down on the back of his neck, burning him. The roboguard behind him slumped onto the coals.

The chainsaw fell onto the coals too, and before Barret's head had any time to register what was happening (his scream was just dying, his mind still on that intent stare from those rotating eyes) hellmasker was moving – sickening quick for a being that had staggered into existence, still wobbling to and fro like the un-dead.

The chainsaw was up and the next roboguard was down quickly – the ragged man was taking more glee from the slaughter than the Gigas had slaughtering all those MPs. These were merely robots, right? How could he be enjoying the kill when these things had no souls?

The third and fourth went down without another word. Nanaki knew better than to get in Vincent's way when he was under these trances. It seemed impossible now that there was even a Vincent inside there – the cool, caustic pale man hiding in the dark umbra of his ragged hair. This boxy, bald splatter-fiend was in no way related to Vincent. It would be safe to assume that Vincent was off in the same no-space the others occupied when they summoned a creature.

As the blue limbs of the roboguard ricocheted off of a dangerously close cliff-edge (barely missing hellmasker) he craned his foul, spinning head towards Nanaki and Barret. The beast was tending to Barret's wounds. Elation washed over him – he recognized this feeling. It was a non-committal feeling of _taking_. There was no need to be at one with the universe, or whatever he had experienced.

But now came the time to act – not be rapt in ethereal ecstasy. Hellmasker scrambled towards him and raised his automatic tree-cutter high above his head. The spell cast on him eased his paralysis and he gathered his thoughts enough to cry up at the hellmasker, "Vincent! Try'n control him!"

The vertical slit opened too wide for a normal human's mouth and for the first time, one of Vincent's other forms spoke. The voice that escaped between the rotting teeth was so far from Vincent's voice it was almost funny. It was raspy and high-pitched, snake-like.

"I answer only to Chaos!" He screamed and his eyes bulged unnaturally large.

"If you say so!" Barret shouted back and aimed his gun-arm. He pulled the trigger and felt the familiar draining of blood – something physical, tangible. He preferred things this way – he could see the bullets drawing blood out from underneath the rags. He could hear the coals crunch as the feet stumbled back. He could smell the gunpowder. His senses were keen; he was strictly in this world.

Hellmasker fell backwards onto the coals, already thinning. He was transforming back into Vincent. Barret ceased firing immediately. Was it that easy? He stood up – Nanaki had healed the particle beam injuries on his back. Vincent was unscathed, naked on the top of the coals. He was out cold.

There was so much to think about that Barret had forgotten the task at hand. Nanaki shouted for him and Barret turned around. The beast opened his red jaws and called with wonton breviloquence, "Barret! Huge materia!"

With no time to spare, Barret leapt back in front of the tiny station. The driver of the train was dead – the chainsaw had flown from the hellmasker's hand and impaled itself into his chest. The fifth and final kill for the demon.

"Right," Barret nodded at nothing in particular – he was staring intently at the controls. Ahead through the windshield, the tracks curved around a bend in the chasm.

"We got it going," Nanaki said, "But what about the brakes?"

"I _know_ already! Just shut up and keep quiet! If we keep this up, we're gonna crash right into North Corel."

He had no clue how to operate a train. Working a handcar had been easy enough – that relied on brute strength and an innate knowledge of tools – a zemzelett with half a mind could operate it. Stopping a speeding train took more brains than Barret had and more human experience than Nanaki had.

They needed Vincent, but Barret had shot him fallow.

"Barret?" Nanaki asked, "Barret we need to take action now!"

He was clueless, speechless, and paralysed with fright. The train began over the bridge to North Corel. As a last resort, he pulled the nearest lever but in his fervency it merely snapped off.

There was a wheel-less truck laying on the tracks – the first in a series of obstacles that would eventually derail the train. Upon impact, the yellow steel crumpled and burst apart until the front of the train punched the engine. It exploded, sending shrapnel flying through the tents ahead. The train was soon upon the tents, and the furniture and residents were crushed under the wheels.

Black smoke shrouded the North Corel banner hanging between the last two trees in the old woods. Shanties along the tracks crumpled and wooden planks soared through the air, raining down on Barret and Nanaki.

The train was half-way through the town now, mowing over two children who had gotten caught beneath the planks. A femur – bold and tough from a lifetime of running – finally bumped the front wheel off the track and the train shifted with a jolt. Still flying with forward momentum, the engine car tipped to the side.

Barret tried to hold on but couldn't grip fast enough. The top of his head scraped against the rocky grounds and he could hear the stones grinding against his skull. He was barely conscious when the train hit the platform leading to the gold saucer gondola. Floorboards exploded underneath his head and he was thrown from the wreckage. The last thing he remembered was flying – being struck by objects from all angles. The sounds of the catastrophe had already faded to an inconsequential hum. The sight of errant limbs and rocks of coal suspended in mid-air was fading to darkness when a glint of light roused him from dosing for a split second as he saw the hot sun reflected by a massive blue crystal. It had been hidden among the coals but was thrown towards him. The sight of the huge materia only caught his attention for a split second before he succumbed to the darkness.


	115. Book 5: Fort Condor's Last Stand

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Fort Condor's Last Stand**

Cid propped his knees up against a rock, down-slope from his position. His spear was leaning over his shoulder, spade-pointed at the Condor behind him. The bird shivered around her miraculous, rainbow-coloured egg.

There was a low mist at the bottom of the mountain. The sun was rising red on the horizon. They had been there for three days and no sign of the Shinra. Something told Cid that today would be different.

"Thanks," came a young voice behind him, but she seemed solemn. Cid reached for the pack of smokes behind his ear.

"Thought they wouldn't've recognized any of us," he fumbled for his lighter, his hand still gripping the spear tightly, "You, me and the cat. Who'd've guessed that you'd been here before? This abandoned shithole of a hill."

"The woods are a very good hiding spot," Yuffie sat beside him, "But sleeping in the trees gives me motion sickness. And the ground? Animals being what they are, even zemzeletts were attacking humans."

The familiar flicking noise of the lighter echoed in Cid's ears and his body reacted instantly, beginning the slow inhalation as the paper between his lips suddenly tasted as sweet as the sky. It flicked off again and he threw it back into his jacket, inhaling once more before drawing the cigarette out of his mouth.

"I suppose this place ain't hard to find," he breathed.

"I stayed the night, pretended to help them with their cause. I stole all of their materia. It… it wasn't like they could use any of it, they just stored everything the reactor spat out. No one with any real magical prowess would have helped them, I thought. Well, Cloud arrived right after I left."

"It was that recent?" Cid's laugh built up phlegm in his throat and he muffled the chuckle with a haughty cough.

"I've… changed since then."

"Well, you damn well have better, journey like this."

"When… in Wutai, after… well, you know. It was only then that I realized how much I had changed. What I was fighting for – the honour of my homeland. It didn't mean squat compared to the damage that Sephiroth was about to do... The damage that Cloud was about to do."

"How did you do it?"

"What?"

"Well, I've noticed that no one has really asked you what happened after we left you on Da Chao."

"You… remember the name of the mountain?"

"That ain't important. How did you find us?"

"Well… I was the daughter of the king, so I borrowed one of the old military ships."

"Leave it to you to think up the word 'borrowed'," he puffed, "So you sailed away using your daddy's boat. With all your nautical expertise I'm sure that was a goddamn cinch."

"Well, actually, I didn't steal the boat. I went about it the old fashioned way and asked the king."

"Words worthy of a princess."

She stammered a little, "Right. I had a small army at my command while I was up top—"

"—puking—"

"—and we sailed to this hibernating Orunai named Bear."

"What's an Orunai?"

"Thought you'd ask," Yuffie rolled her head back to look at the Condor. "According to my homeland, the term describes someone who has been blessed by Leviathan and given abnormally long life. According to Elder Hargo of Cosmo Canyon, they are people with a closer genetic link to the Cetra, who naturally live longer than humans."

There was a weighty pause and they both thought of Aeris. Yuffie continued with a start, "Tseng was one, he had Wutaian blood. It's often been said that the Wutaians are more closely connected to the Planet. At least, that's what kind Easterners say – there aren't a lot of them."

"Orunai?"

"Kind Easterners," Yuffie laughed, "But Orunai are rare too, even in Wutai. Anyway, so this guy in a cave is one. When I went in he wasn't hibernating anymore, and he decided to give me supplies to make a raft with. Long story short, I paddle my way to the Temple."

"How did you get inside?"

"Barnaby."

"Who?"

"The General we killed inside the Temple. He recognized me and said that while his allegiance lied with Shinra not Wutai, he would still bid the princess a small favour."

"And in return?"

"I killed him. Anyone who knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of Shinra wouldn't become that terror unless they deserved death. General Barnaby was weak. I won't become the thing I hate."

Cid hummed in acknowledgement.

"So, anyway," Yuffie shook her head, "I just came here to say thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Not a lot of people would have stuck up for me like you did."

"Well, they just knew the old you, I guess."

"You're a sensitive guy."

Cid jerked his head suddenly, but halted before turning to her. Instead, he breathed out the smoke slowly – it curled around his features, hiding them.

"I… had this diary." He started, and gave a little laugh, "I don't even know why I'm mentioning it. It was this disgusting pink thing – it was supposed to help me sleep, Shera said. She noticed that I slept a lot during the day – especially when people were talking. I don't know when it happened, I guess after Rocket town was born. Town meetings, meaningless shit. I must've fallen asleep at one by accident, but I stayed up all that night thinking about it. Asking myself why I had fallen asleep instead of listening to someone else. Well, you can imagine that staying up at night affects my sleeping patterns. So I got kind of caught up in this circle, snoozing whenever anything important was happening and spending my nights trying to forgive myself – or, if there's some tail around, fuck away my thoughts."

Yuffie flinched and Cid noticed, but for her sake he didn't give away that he had.

"The diary only had one entry in it before you guys came along. It was about my old ambitions, how after all these years I still couldn't let go. I'm not a sensitive guy. I'm crooked, a pain to anyone who knows me. I commanded Shera around like she owes me her life. And I kind of like it that way. I like being crooked, and surly and a humbug."

"It's a shell," Yuffie said.

"Of course_ you_ recognize it," Cid smiled and smoke curled from between his teeth, "You're as sensitive as I am. Your shell's a different colour."

"Well, no two Koi are alike," she leaned her head forward, "I used to collect cats. Strays, really. It might have been better for them just to kill them, but I could never bring myself to do it. I had about a dozen hidden in the royal mansion, Godo could never find them no matter how loudly they mewed. I was almost as good at hiding those cats as I was at hiding materia."

"There you go again. Boasting and acting like a damn little brat when you and I know that's not who you are. You're the Queen of Wutai," at this, Yuffie turned her head and looked at him with surprise. "You're a woman and sooner or later you're going to have to stop pretending."

There was silence as a distant bird screamed into the morning.

"How did you know?" Yuffie asked after a long time.

"I've got a whole ship full of people," Cid smirked, but the corners of his mouth pulled down, wrinkling his cheeks. He tossed the butt down the hill. "They bring me news from the world down here – just the way my life should be. Godo was killed the day we took the ship. Well, they say he died in his sleep, but...."

"Assassination," Yuffie looked at the thin trail of smoke coming from the butt down the way. "Place a member of AVALANCHE on the throne and you have a recipe for—"

"War. It's unlikely that it'll break out before Meteor hits. _If_ Meteor hits, that's game over for everyone. If Rufus destroys it, he'll have more public favour than Luck herself; they'll gladly back him on destroying their old enemies. And then, Rufus'll have the whole world in his twisted fucking fingers, and _then_ it's game over for us."

"A clever trap," her face was steely, "I found out the day Tifa left. About my father, I mean. Sometime soon I should return to Wutai, although I doubt any of them would accept me as their Queen. They barely accepted me as Princess, holding out hope that maybe dad would pop out a son from inside a wart. I don't know. It's always been Kings in Wutai. There will have been pandemonium – especially with me being on the run."

"You'd think the world was ending," Cid sighed.

There was movement in the mist – Cid didn't see it but Yuffie noticed it clear as day.

"They're here," she stood up, pulling her shuriken from its hook on her back. Cid stood up and squinted into the mist. "I don't see anything."

"They'll be here soon."

Cait Sith and Mog bounded up. "I put rocks in Mog's fists!" cried the cat. "We'll pack a hard punch!"

"Put that thing away," Cid grabbed the cat by the tail. "You'll just be a big target. I need you nimble, get to high ground and use that megaphone of yours properly for once. Yuffie… Give'm a little bath," he turned to head back into the fort.

"I'll be counting," she raised her shuriken to her face, watching the red materia glow before she – and it – dematerialized.

* * *

In the mist, one hundred Shinra troops moved, guns out. After the huge materia in North Corel had been nearly stolen by AVALANCHE three days ago, Rufus wasn't taking any more chances.

They moved swiftly through the mist – they had yet to reach the abrupt incline of Tooth Rock but the ground had grown wet recently. To an MP in the crowd, that meant that they were nearing the base of the rock. The mist had grown thick and he could nary see but five other MPs. There was a swooping sound behind him. It was muffled like a bullet through water, but as large and as _close_ as a hand swatting at his ear. Startled, he turned behind him, gun raised.

There was nothing but the mist.

His boots sloshed through the mud – the water was getting deeper. MPs began to appear through the mist – shouldn't there have been some closer behind him?

He continued to move. His socks were getting wet.

Another whooshing sound a few metres further and this time… this time he swore he saw something blue whip through the mist to his right. When he turned to look there was nothing. Not even the MP who had been walking beside him.

Someone screamed in the mist – impossibly far away for him to see anything. Suddenly, troops from all sides began scrambling towards him. He couldn't gauge their expressions behind their full-faced masks, but from the way they were running there had to be something behind them.

One of them staggered and fell and was carried back into the mist. Biting down on his ankle was a gargantuan blue snake. It dragged him out of sight.

"Shoot it!" shouted a sergeant.

When the snake slithered out of the mist (moving impossibly fast) the man beside him fired. The bullets didn't hit the snake. They should have pierced its head but instead they seemed to fly right through it.

The ghostly serpent picked up the MP beside him and slithered back into the mist. He could have sworn the thing wasn't even on the ground.

Before he knew it he was running with the rest. They scrambled towards the haze of nothing through ankle-deep water. The ground began to incline. He ran out of the mist and the blue reactor lay before him at the top of Tooth Rock.

The MP to his left cried out and he barely had time to duck before the damn thing flew right where his head should have been. He looked over to see that the MP beside him was not so lucky – the decapitated corpse fell into the water.

The water. It was running uphill.

The great serpent turned up and swam through the air. It changed its size to suit its purpose. Not it seemed as long and thick as the mountain itself. When it turned back around itself, it was even longer and as thin as a rail.

It was now a coiled mess – almost mesmerizing. Its long hooked beak led its head out of the knot and it unravelled a ways up the mountain. The water continued to flow towards the creature – it was now knee high.

Numerous shots were heard from beside and below him. Bullets flew past his helmet and through the serpent. It reared back its head and screamed. The scream was like like the sound of holy hell.

He could feel blood dripping down both sides of his neck but he was no longer able to hear anything. His brain shook, for even though his eardrums had exploded, the sound still rang through his entire body. He dropped to his knees and felt the cold chill of the water at his crotch.

He looked back at the serpent as the water rose around it – as if commanded by its screaming.

It closed its beak for a moment and then reared back again. He could feel the very ground tremble in anticipation. The beast opened its mouth. He could hear no sound but felt the shockwave from the scream. All the way down the mountain the water exploded from the serpent – as if it had dropped a bomb in the middle of the ocean. A tidal wave roared towards them.

It washed over the MP and he felt himself tumbling.

* * *

The puppeteer stood anxiously inside the Shinra building, his focus on the battle across the continent. He stared through Cait Sith's eyes as the resistance troops ran onto the soaking hill – the magic water evaporated and the mud turned to dust under their boots. The cat stood at the highest ground, watching the forces clash. The numbers were comparable now – it was almost an even fight, if not for the heavy firepower in Shinra's favour.

The puppeteer kept one eye on the door to this chamber, hoping that no one would walk in and see him helping the enemy defeat Shinra in such a decisive battle. He could still use the excuse that in order to be a good manipulator, he must mix lies with truth. The complete truth was that he didn't care about Shinra's objectives, or their military might or Shinra Inc. at all. He cared about what AVALANCHE cared about – he was completely theirs.

But he was slow. With his focus somewhat distracted by the offices around him, and the radio signal lag between the battle there and Midgar, he was seeing things seconds too late, and his voice was reaching them seconds later. Cid turned around and seemed to look the puppeteer straight in the eye. It always seemed as though they were looking right at him. "Damnit, Cait Sith, you're useless up there. Get your toy and come hit people."

"Right-O!" said the puppeteer, immersed in his character. The cat ran inside to get the stuffed white mog with rocks in his gigantic hands. Climbing atop it, the puppeteer made Cait Sith ready the megaphone to order the toy around.

"March!" cried the cat, and Mog ran onto the battlefield, arms swinging. An infantryman fired at the cat and from the puppeteer's safe position in the Shinra tower, he still flinched as if shot. The bullets passed harmlessly through the fat, stuffed plush of his walking tank, and the heavy hands knocked the gun out of his hand. A resistance fighter dressed in rags picked up the gun and finished the job. "Woohoo!" Cait Sith shouted through the microphone, and continued to rampage down the hill.

Cid's spear flew in an unstoppable flurry around his body. He had become a master of his weapon. He was a lancer now, a specialist with the pole-arm. Sweeping it fluidly in front of him, he sliced the feet clean off an infantryman readying a shot. He felt it more difficult to control the weight now that there was materia fastened into the wood, but the power it gave him more than made up for it. He reached into the fabric of the universe without reservation, and plucked out the knowledge needed to access the stone's powers. A great, cold energy blast swelled in his hand and he let it fly out aimlessly into the battlefield. It crystallized through the air and the chunk of ice hit Mog with a blast. Cait Sith tumbled off his steed and ran back to Cid.

"What the hell happened?!" Caith Sith shouted.

"My mistake," Cid shrugged, "Aimless magic throwing."

"Be more careful," Cait Sith turned towards the raging battle – which had given them a momentary reprieve. "Magic isn't something to be tampered with freely – it has a will of its own."

An MP ran at them and Cid thrust his spear forwards through the armour, shouting at Cait Sith, "You're just pissed off cause Lady Luck favours me – and your reach into the mysteries of all the crazy shit out there sucks. You give shitty fortunes."

"That was uncalled for!" Cait Sith shouted through the megaphone.

"Will you two get a room?!" Yuffie cried from somewhere on the battlefield. They looked in the direction of the voice.

Yuffie had just stabbed an infantryman behind her in the face with her shuriken and used the force of it to lift herself up to kick an oncoming, blade-wielding enemy. "They're pullin' out the bayonets!" she laughed, "Bring it on! For the glory of Wutai!"

Yuffie's yellow materia glowed and the MP in front of her seemed to stumble in a daze. Yuffie sprinted out of there as the MP began to open fire at his fellow troops. She slowed down beside Cait Sith. "You can thank Pollensalta for that little spell!"

"Don't get cocky, you two," Cait Sith warned, "We've already lost Mog."

"He'll be fixed before tea time," Cid laughed, taking out three men who were standing in a semi-circle around him.

* * *

It was darkness for a long time. When he came to, he was dryer than he expected. Someone stepped on his back with such force it caused him to choke out a yell. He opened his eyes. Troops were running – he was surrounded by bodies but at least half of the army had survived. The serpent and the water were gone.

He couldn't hear anything, but he felt the earth's low rumbling as fifty men stampeded uphill.

He slowly rose to his feet and charged onwards. He let out a battle-cry, felt it in his chest and throat but could only hear the same dull fuzz that he'd heard since the magic serpent had screamed.

There was a battle ahead. He knew because a grenade exploded not to far ahead from his position. He was careful to watch for shrapnel.

His muscles ached from the running and climbing and the force of the tidal wave.

An enemy soldier charged towards him – a scrawny looking man in brown rags. He also had his mouth open in a scream, but the MP could not understand him.

Carefully, he aimed and pulled the trigger. The man – brandishing a cheap pistol – collapsed on the mountainside and slid down a ways before stopping. The MP ran on.

He had never seen so much magic used before. He ran past an MP who suddenly burst into flames. He looked around but couldn't see any SOLDIERs anywhere. There hadn't been a SOLDIER seen in months. They had all wandered from their homes, abandoned their posts and families. Some say they defected to Wutai's side. Some say they left to follow Cloud Strife and his war against Shinra. Cloud was dead, but he had fought with Fort Condor before. Were there SOLDIERs here?

A cone of ice soared through the air and stabbed another in the back and he fell forward. The militia man who had been fighting him looked pleased with himself until he was riddled with bullets a second later.

The MP could not hear that his gun made no sound. He didn't know that the bullets had not come from him. He had no idea that the water had ruined most of his shells. He charged on.

The sound of gunfire was everywhere, below his feet was a massacre painted red upon brown canvas. It was painfully obvious that they were losing – the serpent had ended the battle before it had begun, throwing the odds heavily in the enemy's hands. The mountainside was littered with bodies. There were only a few on each side left. Two of the enemies – one was a young Wutaian girl and the other was a middle-aged man with a spear – stood on high ground looking at him and the rest of the regiment. There were two nondistinct figures in rags behind them brandishing swords, and a small robotic cat pacing around their feet anxiously.

He didn't hear the flames erupt inside the belly of the troops behind him, but he felt the heat resonate as their bodies fell apart around him. There was silence and stillness for a few seconds – he realized he was the only one left on the battlefield.

The middle aged man moved his mouth, but communication at this point was useless. Did they not see the blood dripping from his ears down along his chest? He looked up beyond them at the Condor laying over its egg. This bird was in the way of Shinra and its goal. This bird was what the militiamen were fighting to protect. Eliminate the Condor, eliminate all cause for fighting. He would surely die, but the battle would be won.

The grenades felt heavy at his side. He had to move fast.

His hands flew truly and ripped the grenade from the belt – throwing off the pin in the process. In the same deft movement he hurled it at the massive bird. The middle aged man – the enemy leader – leapt into the air and for a brief terrifying moment it seemed as if he was about to knock the grenade from its course. His intent, however, didn't seem to be stopping the grenade but rather flying in for the kill.

The enemy had jumped incredibly high – he must have been aided by magic. He was so high up that the MP had time to reach down to his gun and point it up. He aimed and fired. No bullets came out – no sound and no flash of the gunpowder exploding from the barrel. He realized in a matter of moments as the enemy leader soared towards him that he had been out of bullets from the very beginning. How poetic that he should be the one to survive to the very end without killing, only be killed after throwing his first grenade.

The spear came down between his eyes and he felt his feet fly into the air.

* * *

Cid stepped off the lifeless cadaver and turned to look at Yuffie, grimacing, "It's like killing a stray cat," he reasoned, "There's no point letting it suffer forever."

Suddenly, a grenade exploded somewhere behind Yuffie. Cait Sith tumbled down the hillside, yelling "Whoah!"

Cid, Yuffie and the few survivors looked to the top of the mountain. The grenade had exploded on the egg and the rainbow coloured shell began to tremble and flash.

"The Condor's egg!" one of them shouted.

"Shit! What the hell's happening?" Cid asked.

"The Condor is an incredibly magical creature!" one of the rag-clad warriors shouted. The ground was shaking now, "When it's in the egg it's extremely unpredictable! That's why measures are taken to ensure it isn't disturbed!"

The eggshell began to crack. The skies themselves seemed to shy away from the pressure. A massive magic tug pulled at their souls – only once had Cid and Yuffie felt a greater magical energy. The sky drew black.

As the eggshell shattered, a sphere of pulsing energy surrounded not only the mother Condor, but the entire blue reactor. Steam hissed out of the glowing orb, shooting out in jets. It was more than magic that pulled at them now – wind whipped Cid's jacket nearly right off; Cait Sith grabbed on to a rock to keep himself in place. The sphere was filled with exploding fire. Despite the fact that they could jump up and touch the energy shield, the heat from the fire never reached them.

There was a mangled cry from within the energy sphere, but they could not see due to the fire.

With a force that knocked them all clean off the mountainside, the energy sphere ripped, filling the sky with the fire that had been trapped within. They were shrouded with flames, but they were thrown so quickly that it didn't catch before disappearing into the air.

Cid landed on his side, cracking his skull. He could feel soreness, hear blood gushing onto the rocks. He kept the strength, however, to roll onto his back. He stared into the peaceful blue sky. It seemed to be over. There was something falling towards him – a brown feather three times his height. It fluttered slowly through the air and came to a rest a metre from him. He could feel himself growing tired but heard the rush of the medics coming for him. They had come from within the mountain – the fort was safe. The battle was theirs. He rolled his head to its side and saw the lifeless body of the Condor just down from him. A tear escaped his eyes as he felt gentle hands on his jaw, prying it open to pour the phoenix down inside.


	116. Book 5: The Leader of AVALANCHE

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**The Leader of AVALANCHE**

The music drifting in the air was sickeningly sweet, with a bitter metallic aftertaste. Hooting trumpets and the constant tooting of a bassoon rang through Barret's head like an alarm clock. Reluctantly he opened his eyes, simply to make the noise stop. He wasn't done sleeping yet. He had a lifetime of rest that he needed catching up on.

'_North Corel,'_ he thought, _'Gone. All gone. All my fault.'_

The music didn't have a source – it drifted through the room, emanating from the very walls. He recognized this music; it was from a life that was long since dead – the life of happy travels. He had watched Aeris pulling Cloud by the wrist through the Ghost Hotel. How he had smiled for them. He had stared down at the turbulent skies and remembered that his hometown had once been down there, and from its ashes this golden monstrosity had sprung up like a poison flower, filling space with music, chocobos and exploding fireworks.

He reached up with his hand and touched the part of his head where he had shred it against stone and wood. It was bald scalp, but there was no pain. He lay now in a king sized bed with red satin sheets. The room was comfortably warm, there was no need for blankets save to cover his naked body.

The door swung open and Dio walked in, clad as usual in a small patch of fabric barely concealing his pubic hair.

"I'm dead," Barret muttered.

"I see you're awake," Dio smiled underneath his enormous handlebar moustache.

"I've gone to hell."

"Nope, m'boy. You're alive and well, here in my private bedroom."

Nanaki came in behind Dio and nodded, "It's over, Barret."

He could approximate what had happened. They had brought him up to the Gold Saucer while he had been under. There they had medicated him – that much was obvious. Dio's reasons for helping were still unclear to Barret, but he knew that he was neither dead nor dreaming. Those thoughts brought much less comfort than they should have, for the events he remembered must then have happened. They drove a train through the centre of North Corel.

"How many dead?"

"We don't know," Nanaki said, "We could barely get you on to the gondola, they came for you pistols waving."

"No need to worry about them following you," Dio smiled, "I've shut down the park."

Barret was still digesting what Nanaki had said. Something about pistols. "The huge materia?"

"The Turks were already on us. They didn't interfere with our escape; they only made sure we didn't have the huge materia."

"So we don't have it."

"It's probably in the hands of Rufus now," Vincent breezed into the room, making the trio in the doorway as awkward-looking as possible. Barret surveyed his team, flanking Dio. Vincent's cape had a few tatters on the very bottom, but he was in tact. Nanaki had a few bald patches where obviously his flesh had been torn off – judging by the length of the new hair, Barret would say that at least a few days had passed since the crash.

"And North Corel is… destroyed?"

"Again," Nanaki answered in his foolishly honest way. Before the tingling feeling in the back of his head consumed him, Barret denied his guilt and refused to think, instead listening to the cheerful refrain – the constant slap-chiming of the distant tambourine.

"We mustn't let this stall us for must longer," Vincent said, and there was a hint of compassion under his deep, resolute voice. "I've just been on the PHS with Cid. _The Highwind_ is headed this way."

"They won't be able to get here on the gondola," Dio remarked, "The ship will have to dock here directly."

The red beast looked up at him. "You have an airship dock?"

"Are you kidding me? This is the Gold Saucer! We have everything!"

* * *

The airship hangar was massively tall, and was accessible only from the entrance pod (where they had passed the gondola, sitting lifelessly beside the marshmallow tree). The way the hangar was constructed, it looked as if Dio had thought to one day house many airships the same size as _The Highwind_. The way things were looking now, however, the world would be long gone before another airship was built under Cid Highwind.

The long nose of their _Highwind_ was sliding into the hangar when they entered, the floating cruise ship was dwarfed by the magnificence of the hangar. Below the nose – the observation deck and the bridge below that) eased towards them, and they could see the tiny figures of Yuffie, Cait Sith and the Captain waving at the window.

_The Highwind_ jerked a little and Vincent saw Cid bark something at the terrified youngster behind the helm. He chuckled a little to himself behind his great crimson collar.

The ship slowed to a stop and they saw Cid's team move away from the bridge. In the few moments they were gone, Barret imagined them walking up the stairs to the observation deck, and tried to time it so that they would appear exactly when he expected them to. They were half a second early.

"Greetings, gents!" Yuffie called. Cid threw down the ladder and it landed squarely on the platform. They climbed down to meet them.

It was at this time that Dio put a gentle hand up to Barret's shoulder. Barret turned around and looked down on the mogul, who jerked his head in the universal signal for 'we-need-to-talk-in-private.'

Barret followed Dio a few metres away from Vincent and Nanaki. "What is it?"

"It about the cat. Cait Sith. There's something you should know—"

"He's controlled by the Shinra, I know."

"I—you do?"

Barret gave a nod and looked back at Yuffie – who had reached the bottom of the ladder and was embracing Nanaki. She turned to Vincent and embraced him as well. "Yeah, we all know."

"And you still went on missions against Shinra – when you knew you had a spy in your midst?"

Barret watched as the cat climbed down the ladder slowly, and the tree-like Vincent plucked him off the ladder and placed him gently on the ground.

"Yeah," Barret smiled, "We still went. Don't think it makes much difference now, with the world about to end. But the cat came through. I'm not the leader, but even if I was, the damn cat would stay." He allowed this decision to sink into himself.

Dio shook his head, "We live in a crazy time. We're all trying to maintain the ways we had before Meteor – all our battles, our causes that were so important back then. Now that we're all in the same boat – all facing our end… we're clinging to our enemies to help us continue fighting each other. Without that stability, we'd probably kill ourselves – like the folk down there in the desert prison. I was going to close the park permanently. I thought there was no point keeping a place like this open when the end was in sight – but I've just thought that maybe… maybe people need a place like this. A place where they can have fun while they still can."

"Good thinkin'" Barret smiled, but he thought _'Those who can afford this place don't wanna have fun no more.'_

"Are you numbskulls coming up or am I gonna have to come down there and spear your asses?!"

"Right away, chief," Vincent snickered.

"Wh-WHAT did you call me?!"

Nanaki made a heroic leap up over the railing onto the deck and Cid jerked in surprise when the beast arrived. Yuffie and Vincent made their way quickly up the ladder and Barret gave one last nod to Dio before grabbing the ladder. Before he had reached the deck, _The Highwind_ had begun to back out of the hangar, leaving Dio on the platform. It would be the last time they would see him.

* * *

Barret plopped down on the cot in his quarters. They had debriefed on the two missions. The huge materia from Fort Condor had been retrieved by Cid's team, and it lay in a safe in Cloud's luxurious, empty quarters. Barret had joked about keeping it as far away from Yuffie as possible – but he was only keeping appearances. Seeing the huge materia – a great yellow stone too heavy for one man to lift – made him feel like leaping off the nose of the ship. Cid had succeeded where he had not, where the stakes had not been as high. When the cost of failure not so dire. It wasn't Cid he was mad at but himself, and he knew that. If watching Cloud Strife had taught him anything, it was that anger at others was always really anger at yourself. His gun-arm rested across his lap, once a symbol of great strength and vengeance, now nothing more than a useless waste of blood.

_'Tifa said,'_ he thought, _'Tifa said that AVALANCHE was hurtin' for help, back then. I knew she jes wanted Cloud to stick around, heh, I can read her like a book. It's no surprise she left us for him, all gargly and wheelchairy like he is. But I'm thinkin'. Mebbe AVALANCHE needed Cloud, mebbe we all did, always. Jes seein all those folks dyin', gettin killed by the Shinra. And the Condor dyin' like that. We're useless without Cloud, 'the party.' Can't even stop a train from runnin' into North Corel. I was never cut out to be leader, I see that now. I thought I was, but jes look what happened to Biggs and Jessie, an' poor Wedge, and now his town... Yeah, it's the Shinra's fault, but it's also my fault for lettin' it happen. Marlene, hostage for the Shinra, an' Aeris' mom, too. Don't make no sense._

_'Hell, I couldn't even survive against Dyne had Cloud not been there to save me. None of us woulda been here. Guess it don't matter who he was, or whether or not he is Sephiroth's shadow. He was always Cloud to me. I didn't know him before, the real him, or whatever. I knew him as that asshole Tifa hired back in January. An' then, the new leader of our party, the usurper of the throne. Heh, nothin' but Jenova's puppet, leadin' us right into her grasp. It's all clear now, but still, I miss the guy. I miss his stupid brash attitude problem, the way him an' Tifa got along, him an' Aeris. Hell, him an' Vincent got along really well too. Everyone loved him, better than me, and he was someone they could look up to. Someone I could look up to, I guess...'_

There was a knock on the door, and Barret looked up. His vision was blurry, and he noticed that he had been lost in thought. He wiped his eyes and cleared his throat. "Come in, all'ya."

The door opened with a hiss, as if Barret had been sealed in airtight. Cid poked his head in.

"Bad time?" the pilot asked.

"Not at all," Barret said.

"Heh," Cid chuckled, "They call me the old pilot, but I just realized! I'm one of the youngest ones on the ship!"

Barret chuckled a bit as well, "You came all the way to my quarter to tell me that?"

"The last Huge Materia is in Junon Harbour," Cid announced, "Cait Sith just told me."

"How about that dumb cat, eh?"

"Yeah," Cid smiled, "Really came through for us. Wonder who he really is, or if we'll ever meet him?"

"I figure," Barret smiled, "That when we do meet him, he won't be the same."

"I guess in a way," Cid laughed, "Talking to the cat is the closest thing we'll ever get to really knowing the guy."

"That was strangely profound," Nanaki said, coming around the corner.

"Sup, Red Thirteen?" Barret asked.

"Not much," Nanaki said.

"Damn," Barret laughed, "I was hopin' to get a rise outta you."

"You called me that for weeks," Nanaki said, "What's in a name, anyway? In three hundred years, they'll call me something different, assuming there will still be people around to name me."

"Cid," Barret sighed, "You did well this mission. I'm leaving AVALANCHE in your hands from now on. I ain't cut out to be no leader – I never knew that till lately."

Cid looked sternly at Barret. Cid was looking deep into him, trying to get a sense of the seriousness of his offer. Barret looked back, in a calm way that was rare. The two looked at each other and their eyes connected. Barret realized that he hadn't looked at anyone besides Marlene's eyes since Corel burned to the ground. He nodded as if to deny Cid his doubt.

"Oh man," Cid shook his head, "You think you know a guy. Then he gets right to your heart. All right, soon we'll head to Junon and get the last huge materia. But ya know, Shinra's probably on high alert since we always mess with 'em. How about we take a break, and see that little fella for a bit?"

"You must mean Cloud," Barret smiled, "Awright."

"Yeah. I'm worried about Tifa. She might have collapsed takin' care of the guy."

The beast had watched this exchange and looked up at the two men with admiration. When he opened his fearsome maws, his voice was jolly and young. "I'll inform the others."

Once Nanaki had made his way out of earshot, Cid laughed, "You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?"

Barret smiled, "I'll make it about as easy for you as I did for Cloud, but know that I'm doin' it outta love."

"Right. And if I told you to swab the deck?"

"I'd do it with yo face."

"That's the spirit. We'll be in Mideel by tomorrow morning."


	117. Book 5: Ultima Weapon

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Into the Lifestream**

The wheelchair was propped between two enormous roots of the tree, and Tifa lay on a soft mossy patch not far from it. The morning after _The Highwind_ had left her in Mideel, the guide in the cherry-red jumper had taken her on a tour to the hot springs. On the way there, they had passed this enormous tree, so wide around that Tifa could park their old buggy inside. She returned here most days. At first she couldn't get the wheelchair up the steep hill to get here, so the tree became almost a break from nursing him. She took more care, now, than she had when she had found him in Midgar. Those many months ago, however, it had been out of curiosity, a desire to find someone like her. The dream of finding someone like her was gone now, and she cared for Cloud for reasons that she assumed were obvious to anyone. But she would never say those words, although she might feel them in the core of her being. She would never say them.

She never came to the tree alone, however. Being alone at a time like this was the last thing on her mind. No, she had made it so that the guide was with her, but she kept her distance from him, making sure he knew that she had no interest in communicating with him. She just didn't want to be alone.

She never went back to the hot springs after that first time – it had been a sickly looking green pool, glowing with the fluorescence of mako waste. She imagined that dipping their feet into the water was how these people could have conceived of such mind-boggling fashion and architecture. No, she had only asked the guide to bring her to the big tree on the path to the hot springs, even though she knew very well where it was.

Today, however, she had brought Cloud with her. He wasn't a frail man, after all; aside from bobbing his head he didn't move much. He was an easy thing to transport. She had trouble, sure, with pebbles and roots. But Cloud didn't seem to mind bumping and jerking over them, and if he was fine with it, so was she.

And now his chair was propped beneath the tree. The large branches and their green leaves above him provided them with shade in the late March sun. She lay on her stomach, propping herself up with her elbows so that her breasts didn't suffocate. Behind her, her legs kicked lazily back and forth.

She glanced at Cloud, who slumped catatonically in the chair. The only sign that he was alive was the constant bob, bob, bobbing of his head. "Hey, Cloud. Do you remember the time that Don Corneo had Yuffie and Elena tied to that stone statue?"

Bob, bob.

"I'm sure you do. You were ready to end him, remember? And then Reno and Rude came and took care of it. You must remember that."

Bob, bob.

"Here, let's play a game. I'll be the pretty girl in the grass, and you can bob your head any time you think I look extra pretty."

Bob, bob.

She didn't feel pretty.

She could see a wild chocobo far away, nearly hidden behind trees. It pecked at the mossy ground. She pointed to it. "Look, Cloud! A chocobo! I remember you looked so silly riding one, but you had a smile on your face…"

Bob, bob.

"I wish you'd smile. If you smiled, I'd know you were listening. I'd know you understand."

Gurgle. Bob, bob.

"What should I do?"

Bob, bob.

"What if you never recover for the rest of your life?"

There was a tremor in the ground and Cloud slumped to one side of his chair. The chocobo darted away in the distance. In an instant, Tifa was on her feet, rushing to make sure Cloud wasn't going to fall.

Tremors had been happening since she arrived – they had been increasing in intensity. The first time it had happened the guide explained it as the Lifestream pushing up against the surface of the Planet. There had been one quake per day – save yesterday, when there had been two. It unnerved her. But then again, she consoled herself, so did the rainbow beads in the guide's beard.

There was a low hum that lingered long after the short rumbling sound of the earth had died. It was a sound that was oddly familiar but she couldn't place it. It drew louder and she began to pick out the individual sounds. The whir of propellers, the great hum of many mako engines. It dawned on her that they were the sounds of home – the last place she had felt comfortable in. Her floating home.

The airship was approaching!

* * *

Leaving the ship to the crew, the party descended down the ladder and began walking through the forest. "Cloud's being such a bother, as usual," Yuffie complained, "Making us worry about him like this."

"I'm not sure it's something he can help!" Cait Sith quipped from atop Nanaki's head. Barret was a metre ahead of the party, barging his way through the foliage.

"Slow down there," Cid yelled, "What are you, S Class?"

"Awright, Captain!" Barret slowed down to their pace. He seemed back to his old self. He turned to Cid and said, "But it'd do some good to hum to it a little. We don't got much time 'fore Meteor lands'n squashes us all, best get Cloud's help and stop Shinra from doin' no-good again."

His voice was frantic, his common more butchered than usual. He was preoccupied.

The foliage cleared and they faced the strange town of Mideel once more. Barret strode ahead of them, underneath the wooden overpass which served as a town gate, of sorts. The rest followed, and they could feel the eyes of the town on them through the windows.

The old grey dog whimpered outside of the infirmary, bored out of its canine skull. "Hey, pup." Cait Sith waved. The dog leapt to its feet upon seeing the cat, but was unsure of how to continue, as Cait Sith rode safely atop Nanaki. As an added insult, the robotic cat put his thumbs to his ears and shook his head at the dog. If the stuffed face had a tongue, it would have most certainly have been out. Nanaki strode past the dog and into the infirmary after Barret.

* * *

Tifa and Cloud weren't in the building, which gave Barret a surge of hopeful glee. He turned to doctor Emitebb. "Morning, doc!" he said, "Where's our friend at?"

Cid entered the infirmary after tossing his cigarette in the dirt outside.

Emitebb turned to them, "Oh, hello again… I'm sorry, but your friend's condition remains unchanged."

"What?" Barret asked, "But he's gotta get better! We got things to do!"

Tifa wheeled Cloud into the infirmary and smiled her broken smile at them. Nanaki turned around and Cait Sith leapt into Cloud's lap.

"Cloud?" Cait Sith asked softly, holding the bobbing head in his gloves, "Cloud, wake up."

"You'll just have to be patient and wait this out. These things take time. Just like fine wine, time is of the essence."

"I got all the essence Cloud needs right here," Barret huffed, removing a glass vile from his pocket, "It's called a phoenix down!"

"No!" Emitebb reached for it, "Any more chemicals in his body and he might die."

"But won't the phoenix down take all of the mako out of his body?"

Tifa reached up for him, but from the other side of the wheelchair, she found it useless. "Think about it, Barret. Did that happen when we used a phoenix down on him in Midgar?"

Barret thought back. No, and it didn't get rid of the Jenova cells either. "Man," he thought aloud, "These things are pieces of shit!"

Barret hurled the glass vessel against the wall and it shattered. Cid cried out in surprise.  
The ground shook, and Barret fell back, knocking Cid out of the infirmary. Tifa fell to her knees and cried out in shock.

Cid picked himself up and looked back at them from outside the infirmary. Already he regretted leaving his spear and materia on the ship. "Barret, what the hell did you do?"

Barret looked at the shattered vile of red liquid on the wooden floor, "What the hell?" he asked, "That's never happened before."

Before Tifa or Emitebb could answer, the ground trembled again, and Cloud's wheelchair began to roll towards the window, propelled by the force of the quake. His head continued to bob. "They're... ugh… coming..." he uttered.

Cid was standing outisde the open window, "What did you say, Cloud?!"

"Uh... aa?" Cloud asked, incoherant. Cid looked around town. Who was coming? He could see the dog sprinting into the forests outside of town. The lazy animal had taken off at an unsettling speed, it made Cid want to follow right behind the old mutt. He had a strong intuition telling him that the longer they stayed in town, the more they would regret it.

'_And the more of us will die,'_ came a nasty thought.

He saw a few people dashing out of their houses in a blind panic. One woman led a small pale chocobo on a leash, screaming about the Lifestream, Meteor and the end of the world.

"Hey everyone, I think we should—" The ground shook again and Cid's vision was filled with brilliant flashes of red and white. He didn't know where the spots came from; it was as if his brain had suddenly been overloaded with information. It made his sinuses pulse. He had felt this way once before, at the Northern Crater, "What the hell is happening?!"

Emitebb ran out of the infimary and joined Cid on the porch, "The Lifestream is gushing out from below the Planet's surface!"

Before the doctor could finish his sentence, the moans of the earth were once again filling Cid's head. The cry of the Planet, a noise he had gotten all too familiar with. It was like a horrific whale-song, too vague to have a tangible word to describe it. It filled his brain like a phlegmatic slug, shaking his brain into a febrile pulp.

"This can't be good!" he shouted over the sound in his sinuses.

He was ready to give the evacuation order when something caught his eye. At first, he thought it was _The Highwind_ coming to escort them to safety. Instead, what he saw froze him with terror.

Tifa ran to the doorway, "Cid, what's going on?"

He thanked Lady Luck for having Tifa around to snap him out of it. "Nothin!" he barked. "You and Cloud get inside."

"But—"

"Hey, don't worry about a thing. I ain't about to die that easily. Do me a favour, though, and get that dumbass Barret out here!"

Barret emerged from within the hospital.

"We gotta get everyone outta here!" Barret cried.

"No we don't, look!"

"Don't got time, we gotta get everyone away—"

"Look, you idiot!" Cid pointed at the sky. Barret's head careened up and he saw Weapon - as black as night - hovering above the town.

"You want that big guy to swallow us up?" Cid finished.

"What do you wanna do? Scare it away?!"

"Worth a fuckin' shot! Let's do it!"

With only a moment's hesitation, Barret aimed his gun-arm into the air and fired at Weapon. Cid turned to the others. "Yuffie! I need a visit from Leviathan any time you please. Nanaki, when she gets close enough, do you think you could get on her?"

"Without a doubt."

"Great. Vincent, do your thing, pal. Cait Sith, I need you on the PHS to _Highwind_, tell them to bring air support." He turned to look at the thing. Barret had only succeeded in gathering Weapon's attention. It had been farther away than Cid had thought, for as it drew closer it became bigger than he remembered. What had he said on the ship last week? He had no 'beef' with Weapon? Life had a way of doing that to people, though. When you want to change, it doesn't care, and when you leave it alone, it comes after you.

"I can help!" Tifa ran outside, fists bared.

"Great, I need you to keep that infirmary in tact. Cloud's helpless, losing him is not an option! If you can manage it, throw up a fire spell or two. Get the doc to scoop up that phoenix down, a little glass never hurt anybody."

Weapon drew so close behind him he could feet the beating of its enormous wings on his back. He turned around and saw that it was close to landing.

The monster dwarfed the red dragon they had fought in Knowlespole. Its teeth looked like jagged mountain tops, its neck as thick as Midgar's pillars. When it landed, the already unsteady ground began to crack.

Yuffie was already in her somatic casting ritual and didn't notice the ground split beneath her. Cid ran towards the girl as steam started to shoot up between her legs. It was Vincent, however, who tackled the girl at the last moment before a fluorescent green water blasted skyward from the crack in the ground. Vincent was already up and shooting at Weapon, and Yuffie crawled out from between his feet. She gave him a look that could kill before starting again.

The sounds were overwhelming. Atop Barret's chat-chat-chat, Cait Sith's voice screaming into the PHS and Nanaki's fearsome war-cries, the Planet voiced its discontent, warbling its nauseating song into their ears as the Lifestream receded back through the crack in the ground.

Nanaki leapt at the creature's neck, throwing Cait Sith from his position on his back. The cat rolled and dropped the phone, but he gave a quick thumbs-up to Cid. _The Highwind_ was on its way.

Yuffie disappeared into the void, and Cid smiled. The timing couldn't have been better. He always wondered what summoners did in those moments before the creature obeyed, but he supposed it was sort of the same thing as what was happening now. He could see his clothes and flesh fade away into nothingness, and soon he could feel nothing. Nothing at all. He looked out at the scene – as disconnected as when he saw the Sector 7 bombing on television. Out of the air, a great spinning sphere of water materialized, and out of the sphere floated Leviathan, the serpent god of Wutaian faith.

The beast swam through the air as if it were in water. As it curled itself around Weapon, the sphere of water from whence it came began to boil turbidly. With an energy pulse so intense it could be see, the sphere exploded and rushed towards Leviathan and Weapon, crashing into them as the snake suffocated the monster with its tight grip. The water washed away the beast and evaporated into thin air, leaving the Weapon dazed as they reappeared into the prime material plane.

Nanaki appeared where he had left off – just about to leap on the beast. He made contact just as _The Highwind_ pulled around Weapon's enormous wingspan.

Several machine guns went off from the observation deck – the crew had come prepared. Cid never saw which one of them had the foresight to throw the spear down at them, but he later assumed it was Bleer, the pilot in training. In landed by the infirmary and he ran to get it.

Nanaki was clawed by a tree sized finger and he fell off Weapon. Yuffie, still exhausted from her summoning, thrust out a hand and cried "Float!" managing to slow his fall to a non-fatal one.

Cid had his spear and jumped towards Nanaki. When he arrived, he cast a quick healing spell on the beast. Nanaki awoke, but was still bleeding and dazed.

Weapon swiped at Cid, who jumped out of the way. The swiping hand barely missed Nanaki but slammed right into Barret, who was tossed against the wall of a building. The force of his impact cracked the wooden frame of the house, and the giant barely stumbled out of the way before the building collapsed. Barret's head was bleeding, but he was alive. He snarled at Weapon and continued to fire.

A massive fiery explosion erupted in Weapon's face. Cid looked to where he had felt the magic tug and saw Tifa in the doorway of the infirmary, fist in palm.

"Get back in there! Did you just see what happened to that house?!"

The explosion, however, seemed to have been enough. Weapon roared at all of them, and this caused the ground to shake with as much fervency as before. Flapping its wings, it lifted off of the ground and began to shrink back into the sky.

There were a few moments of anxious silence. They were waiting to see if it was actually fleeing, or if it was moving away to charge. When it continued to shrink into the distance, Cid pumped the air with his fist. "Holy fuck!" he laughed, "We did it!"

Cait Sith jumped for joy, "Take that you stupid Weapon!"

Cid and Cait Sith, however, didn't notice Barret, who had collapsed on the ground. Vincent was already atop him, casting curative spells. Yuffie ran to him. "What's happened?"

"He has a concussion, looks like," Nanaki surveyed, "If we heal him, he'll make it."

The ground began to shake. "There's no fucking _time_!" Cid barked. "We have to get everyone out of here!"

Vincent and Cid grabbed Barret, but even then he was almost impossibly heavy. Yuffie and Nanaki tried to help. Barret uttered "Damn… a little more and I woulda smashed him…"

"Hold on, big guy," Yuffie helped.

Cait Sith sprinted as fast as his little legs could carry him, shouting "Evacuate!" to all that could hear him. The Lifestream spat out of the crack in the ground one more, drenching the robotic cat. Cait Sith followed the rest out of town.

"What about Tifa and Cloud?"

"Goddamnit! There's no time to worry about anyone but yourself right now, Nanaki! The main stream is kickin' up. Something huge is coming!"

Something gave way underground, sounding off a large bang that shook the dust off the rooftops.

"Damn!" Cid cried. They were under the wooden overpass now, and Vincent tried to put Barret on his feet. They helped him stumble into the forest. Cid called back one final time, "Tifa! Cloud! Get out of here!"

* * *

In the infirmary, Tifa and Cloud remained. "This is bad. The tremors are getting worse. "

His head bobbed more frantically than before, and his eyes had widened since the quaking had started. Tifa was grateful that at least he was responsive to something. "Wait a minute, Cloud," she assured him, and left him to walk up to Emitebb and Dellandra. "Doctor Emitebb, shouldn't we move him somewhere rather than stay here?"

Emitebb nodded, "It might be safer to take refuge in a wide open space."

She ran back to the wheelchair. "Don't worry, Cloud. I'll take you somewhere safe."

He bobbed his assent. From outside, the Planet moaned, but Tifa could swear that she heard a voice calling to her, a lachrymose refrain hidden in the brain-numbing moans of the Planet.

_Oh-tee-tai-tee-tai-tee-tai your soul is going to die_

It was angry.

"The structure can't take it!" Emitebb cried, "Hurry!"

"Yes!" she ran behind the wheelchair and pressed her lips to her love's ear. "Ready, Cloud? We're leaving now!"

As she wheeled the chair out of the infirmary, the palm trees in town were swaying violently, the crack in the ground was burping out Lifestream. She could feel the ground beneath her feet starting to give way. She desperately pushed the wheelchair over the crack in the ground as it began to widen. She had to leap to reach the other side. She didn't look back but she heard the sounds of the Planet eating itself as a chunk of the city was swallowed by the waters underneath. The infirmary collapsed, dragging the doctor and his assistant down to drown in the watery depths.

Tifa continued to run through town as she saw the ground underneath the whole village crack like a horrific puzzle, spitting steam and Lifestream up around her and Cloud. As the pieces of the town fell away, flying boards barely missed them. She ran as fast as she could manage.

They were almost underneath the wooden overpass, almost to the edge of town, where the roots of the trees would provide strength in the ground. She stumbled a little as a chunk of earth underneath her fell away into the glowing pool, and she barely made it to the other side as the town sank away.

They were running underneath the overpass now, she could see the rest of the party on the other side. Her friends!

Just then, the ground split ahead of her and the ground tilted and swayed away from them. She took a few more steps, to the edge of the land, but it was too far to jump with the wheelchair. The wooden overpass fell behind her into the ocean and she could feel the wheelchair pushing her back. The ground tilted until it was vertical, and Tifa fell towards the green pool. Cloud in his heavy wheelchair dropped like a rock ahead of her.

Before Cloud hit the water, he fell lifelessly out of his wheelchair. He hit the pool headfirst and sank down until she could not see him. She was directly behind him, bracing herself for impact.

When she hit the water, she could feel its song pulling her deeper than water should, grabbing at her with its horrific green glow. Snatching her away from the light and into total darkness, where holding her breath would not help her. The water pervaded her skin, drifted like a gas through her pores and into her brain. She faded out of consciousness.


	118. In the Lifestream: The Gates of Nibel 3

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**In the Lifestream: The Gates of Nibelheim III**

_Oh tee-tai-tee-tai-tee-tai your soul is going to die._

She no longer needed to breathe, for breathing was for the mortals. She had a vague sense of smell, but not the sensation of breathing in. The stench didn't need to be inhaled, the smell of death crept into her mind on its own. She could taste it vaguely, but her senses meant nothing.

She had a vague sense of herself, and her sense of sight was focused mainly on this. As she spun downwards into the thick bowels of the Planet, her body seemed to glow. Her clothing, down to the fingerless gloves, glowed as an extension of herself. As she looked down at her hands she realized that it wasn't her actual self she was looking at, but her soul as she saw it.

_Oh tee-tai-tee-tai-tee-tai._

She realized with a start that she was completely alone. There weren't any people, any plants, there wasn't even the ground to keep her company. It was her and the darkness. Without breath, without body, she couldn't open her mouth to speak, but when she tried, she could hear her voice.

"Wh-where am I?"

_Your soul is going to die._

"What's happening?"

The moans of the Planet were joined by a low warbling, like a great heavy bubble it rose out of the nothing and surrounded her.

"Where's Cloud? Cloud, where are you?!"

There was a response from the noise. The Lifestream changed in tone. It seemed to contemplate her words. Her words? No, her desires. She could feel herself being drawn forward, the stream of life washing her away with a current of moaning spirits. She felt calm now, she knew she wasn't to die. Not today.

Inaudible voices washed over her, overlapping each other to the point of incomprehension.

"Who is it? ...I can't hear…"

Odd noises filled the gloom, alive but inhuman. Images washed through her brain, a million pictures in a second, and she felt overwhelmed with information. Information that was not hers. Information that did not belong in her head.

"Wait a minute! I don't know anything about that!"

More images, and this time, the Lifestream seemed to be sending her emotions as well. She could feel herself altered immensely by the things she heard (but could not really hear) and the things she saw (but could not really see) and the things she did not understand on the conscious level but the emotions led her to the conclusion.

"That's not me! I wouldn't do anything like that!"

The Lifestream became angrier. The sounds split her brain apart. She reached up her glowing hands and covered her ears – it did no good, but she pressed as hard as she could.

"No! Stop it! Stay back!" She ran in any direction she could. Forward, the choice with Tifa was always forward.

_Oh tee-tai-tee-tai-tee-tai your soul is going to die._

"Somebody help! Please!"

The opposing forces in the Lifestream tugged at her. There was a side that loved her and drew her closer to her goal. The other tormented her – showed her things from her past she didn't want to remember. Who she was, what she was capable of. She wanted to run with the gentle current, towards her love.

"Cloud, help me!"

The blackness took hold of her and she was spinning, spinning. She cried out as she tumbled.

And then something incredible happened.

* * *

She was alone in the blackness. She knew somewhere that she was no longer attached to her body – that this was her soul's torment. This was mako poisoning, the product of touching the dregs of spirits, collected over millions of years. To be reunited with the Planet before death, in a complex state. Her soul had been ripped from her body, somewhat violently. But then something happened that she never thought possible.

Her soul merged with that of another.

She didn't see the other soul coming at her, because she was only aware of herself and the darkness. When their souls merged, however, she began to _feel_ it. It started as frightening, but then the blackness ripped apart into green, green as the most gorgeous grass.

She felt solid ground beneath her feet, but while the blackness gave way to light around her, she could not see what she was standing on.

There were stars everywhere, glowing green and yellow stars. There were planets of all shapes and sizes. They were being born and dying everywhere she looked. It looked much like Bugenhagen's orrery, only natural and breathtaking. Pillars of the strangest liquid wood reached up gracefully for nothing at all, and when she finally looked down she saw that she was standing on the top of one such pillar, and that around the rim of the circular platform grew curling branches with lush leaves, decorating the edge of the pillar like a cake.

The energy here felt good, it felt right. Finally appearing between the stars above her was a huge image of Cloud Strife.

Something was amiss, however. Cloud was crouched on the ground, clutching his ears. She could not see his face.

"What is this, Cloud?" she asked him. The great image of him in the sky didn't hear her, and he seemed to blink out of existence for a moment – the image wasn't whole, and wasn't tangible enough to connect with. Broken.

"Am I in the inside of your dream? Or is this… your subconsciousness?"

She smiled a little as a tear escaped her eye. Of course his mind was this beautiful, this utterly complex.

"You're searching, aren't you Cloud? Searching for yourself. Well, I'm here with you, so I'll help, if you'll let me. But where to begin, Cloud? Where to begin?"

Her thoughts would not stay in her head, it seemed. The two were melded, for better or worse. He was closed from her, trapped in his own self-doubt. She was open to him though, and could feel her love shaping the look of their world together. Pillars grew next to hers like stepping stones down to two thin trees, whose branches met to form the familiar adobe archway of her hometown.

"Nibelheim," she thought, and her voice echoed throughout their connected world. "The gates of Nibelheim. Five years ago, Sephiroth passed through these gates. And… that's where it all began. It's best if we start from there." She turned to the great floating Cloud in the sky and motioned for him to follow. "Come on, Cloud!"

But he would not come. Instead, she saw a second image of him, standing beside her. He smiled his broken little smile at her, if one could call it a smile. He wore everything a SOLDIER should wear. He looked the part of a SOLDIER.

"Come on, Cloud. I know it's not easy, but I'll be right with you."

They stepped through the gates of Nibelheim and the world, their dream world, faded away and they were completely immersed in Cloud's memories.

* * *

There was a truck parked next to the gates of Nibelheim; it had been rusting against the wall of his home since the owner's death. "Look, Cloud!" Tifa walked towards it, "There's Grandpapa's tuck! The only truck in town."

The water tower sat in the distance, what was once a mysterious obelisk of childhood was now humbled by their age. It was the same town they had passed through last month, but something felt more real about this town than it had the last time. This was exactly how the town had looked five years ago. "And there's the well." She turned to him. "This is the Nibelheim you remember, isn't it? It's the same as my Nibelheim. That makes it our Nibelheim."

He nodded to her, but he seemed unable to speak. She nodded.

"Five years ago, two men from SOLDIER came here. Sephiroth and a young, vibrant SOLDIER. Can you tell me what happened?"

"How does it feel?" Sephiroth strode into existence near the gates. Tifa turned to avoid being seen but he seemed to take no notice of them. When he walked, he walked like he was underwater – the air undulated around him as if shying away from his power. This was Sephiroth before the madness, a resolved power that he could control – he had lived with it his entire life.

"Five years ago," Tifa thought, and her voice flowed out of her, "I saw the real Sephiroth for the first time."

"This is the first time you've been back to your hometown in a while, right? So how does it feel? …I wouldn't know. I never had a hometown."

"What about your parents?"

Tifa thought, "So this is the great Sephiroth."

Sephiroth looked at the ground, his cat-like green eyes reaching for something. "My mother's name was Jenova. She died right after she gave birth to me. My father..."

Sephiroth grew a smirk and began to laugh quietly inside his chest.

Tifa thought, "But to tell you the truth, I thought he was very cold."

Regaining his composure, he shrugged the topic off. "What does it matter?" he asked, and passed through the gates into Nibelheim, standing beside Tifa. "Let's go."

"I remember, I felt a foreboding about him," she said as Cloud walked in from the nothingness, flanked by the two MPs, dressed in his full SOLDIER gear. Short yellow hair spiking naturally upwards. Blue turtleneck sweatervest and navy pants. SOLDIERs monocrys tasset around his midsection, the lone iron pauldron over his left shoulder.

The Cloud of the present ran to join up with the Cloud of their memories. When they met, the two bodies joined in one and it looked at her, as if for approval.

"No, Cloud."

She couldn't bear to look at him. "I've been hiding this for some time – afraid that if I told you… something terrible might happen. But I'm not going to hide anything anymore."

With a violent flash, Sephiroth and the two squadlings disappeared, leaving only the two of them. Cloud cringed at the suddenness of the light, and Tifa wanted to reach for him. But telling him was much more important. This was the truth.

"You weren't here. You… Cloud Strife did not come to Nibelheim five years ago."

She looked towards the well, where she could feel her memories altering the scene. Their Nibelheim stayed the same, but a younger version of Tifa was there, only fifteen, wearing a straw hat and long brown skirt. She waited just inside town. Tifa looked at her younger self.

"I waited… but Cloud never came."

Now the scene as she knew it played out before them.


	119. In the Lifestream: The Gates of Nibel 4

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**In the Lifestream: The Gates of Nibelheim IV  
**

Grandpapa Lockheart had a truck parked next to the gates of Nibelheim; it had been rusting against the wall of his home since his death. No one moved it, as Grandpapa Lockheart had been loved in the community and it served as a testament to his existence. His son, Tifa's father had even been voted mayor, in hopes that he had gleaned some of his father's honour.

Tifa didn't know or care about such things, for a girl of fifteen only has a few things to care about. Her studies, her outfits, and what the boys would think of her if they knew she had been bleeding for almost three days straight. This was the Tiffany Lockheart before the Nibelheim Incident, a Tiffany that would have been right at home with Johnny Fawlher in Costa del Sol. A Tiffany Lockheart that would have been perfectly content to never see the rest of the world; content to never see the big city of Midgar. Nibelheim was big, too, but more importantly, Nibelheim was _hers_.

The buggy slowed to a stop outside of the gates and before the door had fallen completely outwards, Sephiroth was already walking out into the post-rain air. Sunny but with a tinge of sadness, as if to warn the town about the events to come. You'll miss the rain, Nibelheim.

Sephiroth swept towards the gate, the air undulating around him, the rain itself fleeing from his own immense power. So this was the great Sephiroth. Before the madness, a resolved power that he could control – he had lived with it his entire life.

The MPs followed suite out of the buggy, standing on either side of the ramp, as if to dramatically reveal the second SOLDIER in the buggy. At the time, Tifa didn't care who else was in there, she was focused on the hero of the war – the man who had been immortalized in a golden statue in Junon. But to tell the truth, she thought he was cold the first moment she laid eyes on him. Frightened, she ran out of sight.

She felt a foreboding about him, a sense of dread that could only follow someone who was rumoured to have taken down a whole Wutaian city on his own. That should have been warning enough, not to let him within fifty kilometres of Nibelheim.

She ran to the well, what was once a mysterious obelisk of childhood was now humbled by her age, even at fifteen. She was still thin enough, her breasts still small enough to hide behind a beam. There was a discourse, but she could not hear it.

Cloud and Tifa – the present Cloud and Tifa, whose minds were connected in a profound way, watched as little Tifa scampered behind the well and watched the scene.

"My mother's name is Jenova," Sephiroth said plainly, knowing only a name at the time – no connotation of alien parasite or experimental subject to cloud his mind. "She died right after giving birth to me. My father…"

Sephiroth grew a smirk and began to laugh quietly inside his chest. Regaining his composure, he shrugged the topic off. "What does it matter?" he asked, and passed the gates into Nibelheim. "Let's go."

When the MPs followed, the man in the middle was not Cloud, but the young, vibrant SOLDIER with the long, black hair.

* * *

Almost at impulse, the world broke away and they returned to the sanctuary of their collective minds. The gates of Nibelheim were gone, gone forever and never to be spoken of again. But she looked at Cloud and made sure that he knew what he had seen. From the wide-eyed, silent madness in them, she saw that he had. It pained her to look into those eyes, but she needed to. He finally opened his mouth and spoke.

"You mean that the member of SOLDIER who came with Sephiroth wasn't Cloud?" he asked.

It was strange – hearing him say his own name in that fashion. Hearing it assured her that he now understood. And now, so did she.

But something was amiss. They were not done here…


	120. In the Lifestream: The Promise II

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**In the Lifestream: The Promise II**

"There's nothing I can say. You have to find the answer yourself. If you can't… then you…"

Another image of Cloud appeared to her left as the Cloud moved away from her, towards the edge of the strange pillar floating in the infinity of space. How could a man be split so? She smiled at him, not sure if her smile was as broken as his. "Take your time, Cloud. Slowly, little by little, okay?"

The new incarnation of Cloud was the one she remembered as being the real Cloud, a young boy with baby chub, yellow pony-tail, green tunic and a hemp-rope belt. He hesitated before opening his mouth. "That starry night – at the well. And our promise that night. What if that memory was just a lie?"

The great translucent image of Cloud in the sky – the one that spaced the gap between the stars – began to shake violently.

"Don't hurry, Cloud. Don't answer too quickly. Just keep checking all those small emotions and it will come back… slowly… little by little… The sky that night, just think about the sky."

As if a blanket was laid around her, Cloud's subconscious twisted and twirled into Nibelheim again.

The night was full of stars. "That's right," Tifa said. "That night was the meteorite shower – the only one I remember happening… before this year."

Cloud sat at the well-side, smelling the old oak of the water tower. Blonde hair in a ponytail, green tunic and matching britches. He wore a desperate look on his face, he had been waiting for her. It was obvious to Tifa that he was convinced she would never come. Desperation became despair, and the young Cloud was almost uncomfortable with himself. It was the first time he had made such a morose face. He was trying it out, later he would find it all too familiar. His legs dangled towards the cobblestone below.

As the adult Tifa and Cloud watched, young Tifa came around the bend of the tower. Despite the look of anticipation on young Cloud's face, he did not turn around. He had grown too frustrated; she had already let him down. He sat there, eyes fixed on the cobblestone, waiting for her to leave.

"Sorry I'm late," she said. "You said you wanted to talk about something?"

Her voice was so familiar. She smiled at herself and thought (aloud) "My voice was much higher in pitch than it is now. It fit me, at the time. Look, Cloud. That's me. You're right, that's what I was wearing that night."

A green dress. Pretty.

"And that, that's you too! You were so small then… and cute."

She moved to the well and climbed up with ease. She sat beside younger Cloud, who took no notice to her. He only cared about the young girl behind him - Tifa Lockheart, the mayor's daughter. He inhaled slowly.

"Come this spring, I'm leaving this town for Midgar."

"All boys are leaving our town" she said from behind them, a little too nonchalantly. It angered her older self, how she didn't seem to care. Cloud arose and turned to look at her – momentarily stunned by her pretty dress.

"But I'm different from all of them. I'm not just going to find a job." He looked Tifa straight in the eye. "I want to join SOLDIER. I'm going to be the best there is, just like Sephiroth!"

As Tifa watched herself, she saw her eyes fill with a myriad of emotions. Moments like this were what separated Tifa from her contemporaries, and – she thought, at least – proved that she mightn't even have stayed the way she was, even if Nibelheim had survived. She felt an overwhelming number of things all at once – it happened less frequently when she was a child, but the moment he told her his plans for the future was one of the more defining moments of her life. She was impressed at his ambitions. She was unsure of his ability to succeed, which was immediately followed by guilt – for not believing in his dream. She was attracted – sudden attraction where she thought none had been before. Hope, loss, anger in preparation for loneliness. Abandoned. Love. In awe of his blind ambition – how could a boy like Cloud Strife have such impossible goals?

"Sephiroth…" Tifa repeated. "The great Sephiroth."

He made his old poker face – she recognized it immediately. He had wanted that reaction from her. He began to climb the side of the great, big, white dome. The well's closed lid. It was difficult for him back then – it added to her doubts of him.

"Isn't it hard to join SOLDIER?" young Tifa asked as Cloud reached the top.

"I probably won't be able to come back to this town for a while."

Tifa sat beside her older self now, and their legs swung in unison off the wood. "Will you be in the newspapers if you do well?"

"I'll try," he said, overlooking the town.

Young Tifa held one knee with her hand and, using it for balance, she leaned backwards, looking at Cloud upside-down. "Hey," she said, "why don't we make a promise? Umm, if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind... You came save me, all right?"

That was a shock. For both of them. Tifa looked at her younger self, brazen and straightforward, and hopelessly optimistic. As children, she and he had been so much alike. Cloud was joined atop the well by the Cloud she knew now, a spectre of his childhood self. But their eyes met as their younger selves met. Four pairs of eyes, staying upside-down at each other. "What?"

"Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me. I want to at least experience that once."

"What?"

"Come on! Promise me!"

The more she stared into new Cloud's eyes, the more she knew that he was no spectre. There was something genuine about him, something so real she could almost taste it. This was not all there was.

"Sephiroth once said… that you made up your memories by listening to my stories. But did you imagine this sky, Cloud? No, you remembered it. That night, the stars were gorgeous. It was just Cloud and I. No one else could have remembered a night so breathtaking as this, no one could have imagined it by hearing a rough description. That's why I continued to believe that you were the real Cloud… I still believe you are the Cloud from Nibelheim. But you don't believe in yourself."

"All right," young Cloud said. "I promise."

A huge meteorite flew across the sky and lit up the town, and the children laughed. Tifa stared up as it flashed across the universe, exactly as she remembered – the length of the tail, the feeling in her belly. "These memories aren't enough."


	121. In the Lifestream: On the Other Side

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**In the Lifestream: On the Other Side of the Mountain**

Cloud, what about your other memories?

No.

Not memories, I guess.

A memory is something that has to be consciously recalled, right? That's why it can be mistaken for a different thing. You remember the sights and the sounds, the smells. You remember the heat of the flames, the look of the skies, the smells of the earth. They're still not enough to convince you.

But what about feelings? Memories in your heart are different from sensory memories, aren't they? The ones that choke you up, or make you feel like you can fly. Those memories must be real.

Cloud?

The way it's been going, is that I say something and you don't remember it, but then you make yourself think that you remember it. The fact that we both remember it is enough to convince you that it isn't your memory, even when the sight of Sephiroth killing the townsfolk fills you with anger. That feeling is real. That cannot be fabricated.

I dread this.

What if you remember something and I don't? Something that has to do with me? If you say something, and I remember it, then we'll know that it's our memory – and it's a true memory.

So talk to me.

"Talk to me."

Cloud – one of the Clouds, fourteen year old Cloud – stood beside her on the strange wooden pillars that made up the inside of Cloud's mind. The great Cloud above them continued to thrust involuntarily about, clutching his head.

Could that be what you really look like, Cloud? Outside of your mind in the Lifestream, thrown from your wheelchair into the depths of the sea?

He was dressed like a SOLDIER.

You're dressed like a SOLDIER.

Come to mention it, why did you want to join SOLDIER in the first place? I always thought it was very sudden, almost irrational.

"I was devastated," said the young Cloud beside her. "I wanted to be noticed. I thought if I could get stronger, I could get someone to notice."

You wanted someone to notice you? Who?

You know who! You, that's who!

"You…"

Me?! Why?!

Tifa, did you forget about those days?

Look, I… I don't know what you're talking about.

An even younger version of Cloud moved into her peripheral – a Cloud I barely recognize.

He was short – nary six months younger than the Cloud that had climbed the well, but those six months had taken off a lot of baby fat. This young boy, a fresh-faced farm boy, was the boy that she could never see becoming the hard-faced Cloud that raced across the Great Glacier with darkness in his eyes. He smiled up at her, even as a child his smile was a little broken, hollow somehow.

"Did you forget about those days?"

"Look, I… I'm sorry, but what are you talking about?"

"It's all right if you don't. You were having a hard time back then." You were so busy with your own things, it's only natural that you don't remember me back then.

"Back then?"

It's important to me… I hate to say it… but it's a very important memory…

Tifa suddenly realized that this little boy – this entity hiding away in Cloud's mind could hold the shred of hope both of them so desperately craved.

"Would you like to see it?" This memory.

One of the liquid pillars grew up and its branches twirled around each other until they formed a perfect square window. The space on the other side of the window – which had once been full of stars – suddenly faded into the unknown.

"Would you like to see where this window leads, Tifa?" said the benevolent child-Cloud.

Yes. Fine. I'll go.

As she looked into the window, she could feel herself falling into it, and smells that she thought she had forgotten breezed past her. She arrived in her room, looking out of the window towards the well in Nibelheim. This was the room of her childhood.

"This is the room of my childhood."

"Yes. It was the first time I came in here."

That couldn't have been true, could it? The young Tifa that sat at the edge of her old bed looked barely younger than when she did that night at the well. Small, swelling nipples preparing for incoming breasts, mounding like marshmallows underneath her shirt. Baby fat around the waist that convinced her to skip meals and exercise daily. Tifa recognized herself – the girl who had boys in her room, but never Cloud.

"Come to think of it… I don't recall you ever being in my room. That's right. We lived next door, but I never really knew you that well."

"You were always with this three-some." Cloud said, and as the words came out, apparitions of three boys shimmered into existence, standing around Tifa. One of them was Johnny Fawlher, the other two died in the Nibelheim fire. Their names were lost forever, but their _faces_ – how vividly Cloud remembered their faces! The mole under one's chin, and the strange, fuzzy patch of brown hair on the other's forehead – the same hairy nevus that parents told their children not to make fun of when they pointed in earnest and made their wide-eyed inquiries.

"I used to think… they were all stupid."

"What?"

"You were all childish, laughing at every little stupid thing."

"But we were children, back then."

"…I know. I was the one who was stupid. I really wanted to play with everyone, but I was never allowed into the group. Then later... I began to think I was different. That I was different from those immature kids. That then... maybe... Just maybe, they would invite me in. I thought that might happen, so I hung around... I was so prejudiced. And... weak. Later, on the night I called you out to the well... I thought to myself that you would never come, that you hated me."

"It was so sudden. I was... a bit surprised. But… it's true that we weren't _that_ close. But after you left, I thought about you a lot. I used to wonder what you were doing, whether or not you had made it into SOLDIER. I started reading the newspapers, thinking there might be an article about you."

I began to obsess over a boy I had ignored my whole life. Why?

"What was so special about today?"

"This was the day… your mother…"

Tifa looked back at her younger self, surrounded by the three schoolboys. Sitting there, she didn't pay them heed. The young girl was crying.

This was the day mama died.

The child Cloud walked into the room and was only there for a split second before Tifa cried out, "I want to see mama!"

The room shattered and fell around them, and Tifa found herself fully immersed in the memory. She could not see her body, only the Nibel Mountains as young Tifa walked up the path. This was her first journey through the mountains – how could she have forgotten this?

"What's on the other side of the mountain?" Tifa asked her entourage – little Cloud was towing behind, his nose in the air.

"Mount Nibel is scary. People die in there." She remembered the stories. Mount Nibel was a more real, more terrifying place than the Shinra Mansion, although when egged on by their cohorts, children would actually ring the doorbell of the Shinra mansion and run like holy hell when the creaking inside sounded like the Shinra ghost coming to drink their blood. Unlike the Shinra mansion, no child ever came knocking on Mount Nibel.

Before today.

"No one crosses that mountain alive," Johnny said.

Tifa hummed, "But what about those that are already dead? Could they cross the mountain? Did mama pass through these mountains?"

Swift as a blaze her memories filled up. To conquer these mountains was the reason Tifa became a guide. But why does Cloud think this is an important memory?

"I'm going!" she looked at the boys and headed down the ashen path.

One of the boys turned right around and headed back to town – the boy with the mole. Johnny, Cloud and the boy with the birthmark headed deep into the mountains. It wasn't until the bridge that Johnny convinced the other boy to turn back. Tifa was walking up the bridge and Cloud stopped then. He watched the group of boys shrink into the distance as Tifa slowly made her way up the bridge. The longer he deliberated, the more alone he was. Holding his breath, the young boy sprinted upwards onto the wooden bridge.

Cloud's voice echoed through the white nothingness, "I don't remember what path I walked. You missed your step and I ran to catch you, but I was too late. We both fell off the cliff. We fell and we fell and we fell. I only had skinned knees."

Skinned knees.

"But…"

The two children were in a heap on the grey ground. Tifa lay motionless and Cloud struggled to his feet, hot tears being blinked back as Mayor Lockheart came running towards them.

"Cloud! Why did you bring Tifa to a place like this!"

Behind him, a group of the strongest villagers had trekked into the mountains, holding torches and pitchforks. "What the hell's the matter with you?" one of them cried.

Tifa's father checked her vitals. "She could have died!" he yelled at the boy, and the deep booming of his voice seemed to shake the ground and make Cloud's lungs tremble. The tears became harder to blink back.

Tifa was in a coma for seven days. We all thought she wouldn't make it. If only I could've saved her…

I was so angry. Angry at myself for my weaknesses. Ever since then, I felt Tifa blamed me. I got out of control – I would get into fights without even caring who it was. And then I heard about Sephiroth. The man who was taking Wutai by storm. If only I could be that strong, that heroic, that attended-to. If I could get strong like Sephiroth, then everyone might notice me. If I could just get stronger, then even Tifa would notice me…

Tifa stood beside the young Cloud, in the floating, abstract world of Cloud's mind. "So that was it," she affirmed, "I'm so sorry, Cloud. If I had only remembered more clearly what had happened, I could have done something sooner."

"It's not your fault, Tifa."

But you remembered! You remembered back when we were eight! Isn't that the answer? You remembered something true, something I couldn't help you with. That means that you weren't created five years ago! Our memories aren't fabricated! Hang in there, Cloud, you've almost found the real you. Let's go back to Nibelheim, one last time…


	122. In the Lifestream: Nemesis IV

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 15**

**Nemesis IV  
**

Nibelheim was ablaze. The flames were as red as the blood that bobbed at the tip of the masamune, clutched in Tifa Lockheart's hands. Tifa struggled to keep the tip from scratching the metal as she ascended the staircase towards Sephiroth. She wanted him to feel her father's blood on the blade as it went through his body. The man in black stood at the top, pressing his hands on the iron door that led to Jenova's chamber.

"Mother, I'm here to see you. Please, open this door!"

"How could you do that to Papa, and all the townspeople?!" Tifa yelled, prompting Sephiroth to turn around. She held his sword, barely lifting it. With the last of her strength, she raised it above her head and brought it down on Sephiroth, who grabbed the blade with his hand and stopped it inches before it collided with his face. Tifa became stunned, and in that moment, Sephiroth overpowered her, and holding the blade he thrust the sword to the side, pulling it out of Tifa's hands. Catching the hilt, he brought it down on his attacker, from the left shoulder he cut her all the way down to her right thigh.

From the impact, Tifa's body flew back off the top of the staircase and the blood from her open wound stayed suspended in the air as she fell back and down the staircase.

Tifa's speckles of blood trailed away from her body and hung suspended in the air as she free fell towards the bottom of the staircase. Sephiroth, letting the tip of his blade drop to the ground, looked up through his ghostly white bangs at the figure standing shocked in the doorway. Tifa's limp body hit the stairs and tumbled past the many rows of pods to land at the black-haired SOLDIERs feet; blood spilling over the metal, washing over his boot. Tifa's face came to a stop a few centimetres from his foot. Her face was clenched in pain, but she was still alive, for now. Sephiroth, high above, turned and knocked on Jenova's door.

There was a loud clicking from within the Jenova chamber and the iron door swung slowly open, Sephiroth pranced inside.

The SOLDIER cocked his head at Tifa, looking concerned at her. "Tifa," he asked. He had long, black hair. His name was…

_His name was…_

_Z… Za…ack… Zack. His name was Zack._

_Oh, Cloud! You remembered!_

"Tifa?"

"I… hate you," she coughed. "SOLDIER… Shinra… even you, Zack. I hate you."

His brow furrowed and he stepped over her. "I'm sorry you feel that way." He bolted up the staircase and into the Jenova chamber to duel with Sephiroth. He left Tifa there to die.

The inside of the chamber contained very little walking space, perhaps a square metre at most. Sephiroth stood just inside the door, facing a large winding tube filled with a red liquid that ran through the tube and down into the floor to be distributed to the pods.

It was blood, sent to fuel Hojo's horrible creations.

The blood was coming from a large statue made of metal. Behind it was a large test tube, but the statue blocked all view of what was inside.

The statue itself was a woman, spread as if she had been crucified. However, instead of arms, out of her shoulders grew two large metal wings. Each wing was a series of large tubes and wires that connected to the chamber walls, which themselves were filled with pipes and flashing buttons.

Sephiroth spoke, at first, to the metal statue, "Mother, let's take the Planet back together. I've thought of a great idea. Let's go to the Promised Land!"

"Sephiroth!" Zack shouted, entering the chamber and standing right behind him, "Why did you kill all the villagers? Why did you hurt Tifa? Answer me, Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth began to laugh, not turning to face his old friend, "They've come again, Mother!" he said to the statue. Still without turning, he spoke again, calmly, this time to Zack, "with her superior power, knowledge and magic, Mother was destined to become the ruler of this Planet!"

As Sephiroth's feet lifted from the ground, Zack stumbled back, uttering a shocked grunt. His feet dangled limply a few centimetres off the ground. His arms were spread wide and he cackled, rising up more into the air. He began to float above the pipe towards the statue. "But they..." he continued, talking to the statue again, rising up and up towards it, "those worthless creatures. They are stealing the Planet from Mother."

When he arrived, he reached up to touch it's face, as if to stroke it, "but now I'm here with you," he said, "so there is no more cause for sadness."

Touching the metal, Sephiroth ran his black glove down its cheek. Suddenly, he reached underneath the wings and violently pulled the statue out of place. Doing so snapped many wires, sending bursts of electricity and sparks all around the room. As he threw the statue to the side, It bled out of its hollow eyes and mouth.

Sephiroth looked upon the large tube that the statue had been guarding. Inside, in the glowing liquid mako was Jenova, suspended. Her shrivelled blue figure hung, suspended with needles, and out of her stomach, a great pipe led down into the mutant chamber, the pipe was filled with her cells. Upon her forehead was a slave crown that tied her to Shinra's bidding - that made the alien creature dormant while she was pierced with numerous probes all over her wrinkled naked body. Probes that collected her cells and sent them down below.

Jenova's head had a great black nothingness where there should've been eyes, and upon her face was a look of pure contentment. Sephiroth stroked the glass once more.

Drawing his sword, Zack yelled up at Sephiroth, "What about my sadness? Is it any less important than yours?"

Sephiroth began to laugh again, and for once, turned to face his old partner. He pivoted in midair, looming high above and staring down at him. "My sadness?" Sephiroth echoed with a snigger, "What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet. I have orders to take the Planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. In my veins courses the blood of the ancients. I am the rightful heir to this planet. What should I be sad about?"

"Sephiroth...I trusted you so much..."

As if provoked by that, Sephiroth shot like a bullet towards Zack, a glint of light danced down the blade of the masamune. Zack barely threw the Buster sword up in time and the two swords clashed, sending sparks scattering on the metal floor.

They both let their brains take a backseat as their SOLDIER abilities – the abilities given to them by Jenova, took over. Before Sephiroth touched ground, their blades met four times. Sephiroth swung his blade impossibly fast towards Zack's neck. Without even blinking, Zack brought the breadth of the sword up to block just in the nick of time. Without being deterred, Sephiroth swung the blade around and Zack seemed to predict the move again – and Sephiroth had predicted his counter measures. Their arms were moving faster than the human eye could see.

Within the first thirty seconds, the masamune and the buster sword met one hundred times.

"No!" cried Zack as he blocked three swift swings, "You're not the Sephiroth I used to know!"

Sephiroth tried to bring the blade up to cut at Zack's waist, but the thick sword came down to meet it with all of Zack's strength. Their combined forces threw Zack and his sword upwards towards the ceiling as Sephiroth's sword was brought up above his head.

As Zack was thrown upwards, he seemed to gain control of himself and continued up farther than normal. He seemed to be floating himself.

"Hm," Sephiroth smirked and flew up to meet him.

Their swords clashed in mid-air and Zack pressed down on the crossed swords, propelling himself across the room. Flipping in mid-air, his feet landed on the pipe limning the opposite wall and he used it as a jumping point to fly back towards Sephiroth – who had done the same.

As the swords met, the old friends were head to head as their bodies stretched out to either side of the room. Sephiroth opened his mouth widely in a lunatics grin.

"Have you gone completely insane?!" Zack cried as they continued to move lightning fast around all corners of the chamber.

The masamune moved too quickly for Zack's sword and he ducked just in time for the blade to slice off the top of his hair – the first successful hit in the battle. The next one would end the fight.

Tifa remembered the sounds of the battle, but the only thing she remembered seeing was the sight of her own blood. These were Cloud's memories. How did Cloud have these memories?

Zack flew past the Jenova chamber and looked for a moment at her terrifyingly empty stare. In his hand, he was gathering a ball of lightning as one of his new materia glowed appropriately. Both Zack and Sephiroth landed calmly on a large exhaust pipe and Zack threw the electric blast at him. He watched the surging ball of energy fly from his hand and along the pipe.

Sephiroth knocked it away with the masamune as if it were nothing – the energy dissipated almost instantaneously. Lifting the sword up with his left hand, the silver-haired warrior beckoned Zack with his right before bringing it up to hold the long hilt.

Zack – instead of leaping right for Sephiroth – leapt up and let whatever power he had discovered lift him up higher until it seemed he was genuinely flying. Sephiroth was soon beside him and they flew up farther, crossing blades and knocking each other farther away until they reached a wall, and then kicked themselves neck to neck once more. Sephiroth seemed more capable of handling this power than Zack, and he flew up and flipped himself around to land on the ceiling. Zack brought his sword above his head to strike down, but Sephiroth was just as fast. Zack's upward momentum continued – even after their swords met, he was still slowly travelling up until their furrowed, angry brows almost touched, and their wheezing, panting spit was almost felt.

Sephiroth finally pushed Zack away with the sword and Zack fell back down, long and forever, between the pipes and wires, down towards Jenova's tube and the floor below.

A pipe large enough to stand on stopped his fall as he fell onto his stomach. He leapt to his feet, exhausted. He barely had a chance to look back up at where Sephiroth had been before the masamune came down on the pipe beside him, cutting the thing in half.

Smoke and steam exploded from the pipe as Zack was thrown off balance, falling once again. Sephiroth was with him now, and the long blade made another try for his head – Zack dodged to the right and the long sword breezed past his cheek. Zack took the free shot! The buster sword flew towards Sephiroth's waist but no sooner had that happened than he could feel something warm explode out of his chest.

Sephiroth had brought the masamune across Zack's torso.

The Buster sword fell from his hand.

Blood splattered through the air as he was propelled out of the Jenova chamber.

Out of the door, Zack continued to fly until his body struck the back of a pod and he fell limp.

All was silent in the pod room once the Buster sword skidded to a stop on the top of the stairs. Tifa and Zack lay in pools of blood and Sephiroth was in the chamber beyond, silently festering.

Zack came to Nibelheim – he was the SOLDIER. Zack fought Sephiroth. Then, where were you, Cloud? How do you remember all of this? Did you… did you see it all?

A dark, thin figure ran into the room and bypassed the scene – unable to think. The MP clambered to the top of the staircase and grabbed the Buster sword, barely able to lift it as he charged into the Jenova chamber.

Inside, Sephiroth was standing in front of Jenova's tube, his hand stroking the glass.

The MP charged silently up the bloody tube, until he was right behind Sephiroth. Even without sound, Sephiroth sensed the presence behind him.

By the time Sephiroth turned it was too late, the buster sword was driving itself into his gut. The tip of the thick blade went through the SOLDIER hero, cracking the glass of the Jenova tube.

Sephiroth cried out in pain – in anger – in genuine fear. "Who are you?"

"My mother… my town… Tifa… give it back!" the MP, fuelled by the adrenaline, now seemed to handle the buster sword with ease, and he ripped it from Sephiroth's body. Sephiroth clutched his stomach as the Shinra grunt stood over the crumpled SOLDIER.

"I had so much respect for you. I admired you."

"Who are you?"

The MP backed away from Sephiroth, taking off his helmet.

The adrenaline was causing the veins in his neck to throb, and beads of sweat to stick to his yellow hair, but Sephiroth gazed upon his determined face and realized that this farm boy – this new man – was his nemesis.

* * *

_Cloud. Is it true? Is this what happened? You were there… you were watching me…_

All of the insignificant memories of the Nibelheim incident suddenly came to the forefront of her mind, and it flashed before them as they journeyed through each other together.

Cloud – hidden behind the MPs full-faced mask, asking strange questions at the mako fountain.

As Zack and Sephiroth entered the reactor, Cloud stood sentry at the bottom of the stairs to prevent Tifa from entering. Tifa stomped her foot and said, "You'd better take real good care of me, then!"

Was it Cloud? Had it really been him?

* * *

"Hey, how are you doing?" Zack asked. The young MP waved to him, and it seemed as if he wanted Zack to sod off. Zack couldn't gage his discomfort, for the Shinra military police uniform included a full faced mask. "Well, hey Cloud… if you're feeling sick, why don't you take that helmet off?"

He had. Zack, Cloud and Sephiroth sat in the back of the truck as the other MP and the driver sat back in their quiet unimportance.

_Yeah… this is me. I never made it into SOLDIER. I left my hometown telling everyone I was going to join, but… I was so embarrassed… I didn't want to see anybody_.

* * *

But Tifa was there as soon as the doors to the buggy opened, and Cloud desperately pulled the mask over his face and strapped the helmet on over his golden hair, fading into her peripheral as the great Sephiroth strolled into town, frightening her into hiding underneath the water tower.

The water tower – where their promise had been made, the promise he had broken.

"How does it feel?" Sephiroth read the sign and turned to the MP – once again showing his boundless compassion. "This is your first time back to your hometown in a while, right? So how does it feel?"

Cloud was too busy looking at the sign: Nibelheim. He hadn't changed a bit since the day he left – it was horrifying. He stood, fully dressed in blue, a failure for all the town to see. The cloth mask concealed his face. Unless anyone recognized his eyes, he would be fine.

But someone had. Augustus Fawlher, after pestering Cloud about taking pictures of the SOLDIERs, looked into his eyes and saw something familiar there. "Hey, aren't you Cloud Strife?" The mask and helmet nodded. "Aw, man that's great! Hey, I should get a picture of you and Sephiroth!"

The picture – Zack, Tifa and Sephiroth were in the picture – but the flash had hit Cloud as well – the guilt and weight of his identity boomed at him in a visual blow. As Tifa led Zack and Sephiroth towards the Nibel Mountains, Mayor Lockheart called to the MP.

"Cloud Strife, right? Born and raised here?"

"That's me."

"…Stay away from my daughter."

Zack had offered Cloud the bedroom in the Shinra Mansion after they discovered Sephiroth down in the basement – Cloud didn't have supernaturally recovering cells like mako-imbued SOLDIERs did, so Zack insisted that Cloud have a comfortable bed. "I'll be fine with this window seat in the west wing."

* * *

Nibelheim was ablaze. Cloud ran into the house adjacent to Town Square. It was the house of his childhood. Breaking through the blackened doorway, he dodged falling banisters and pieces of the ceiling that crashed down upon him. He found the body of his mother, already dead. He stayed with her until he was dying himself – the smoke was too much. He made it outside before the roof collapsed but his legs buckled from underneath him and fell by the tower. Coughing, he filled my lungs with oxygen, but it was hot and it burned his muscles. He lay in town square, coughing but the fire was consuming him.

"Sephiroth!" I shouted loud enough to hear myself over the flames, "This is too terrible!" Zack ran out of the house and had a discourse with Zangan, then helped Cloud to his feet. They watched as Sephiroth killed Augustus Fawlher, and stared at them through the flames.

Sephiroth disappeared into the flames, and Zack and Cloud chased him until the Nibelheim reactor, where Cloud took off his mask for the first time in what seemed like a long, long time.

* * *

The helmet clattered to the floor as Cloud ran down the staircase towards Tifa. The buster sword became heavy again and he dropped it on the staircase. Placing one hand under her upper back and the other behind her knees, he picked her up slowly and walked her to a safe area underneath the pods, fixing her position to keep bleeding to a minimum. "You promised..." Tifa said, a small drip of blood escaping from the corner of her mouth and running down to her chin, "you promised... that you would come..."

She was murmuring, but her mind was far off. She was fading in and out of consciousness.

_So you really did come when I was in trouble!_

_I'm sorry I didn't get there fast enough._

_It's all right… Cloud._

There was a horrible slicing noise and a moment later, Sephiroth limped out of the Jenova chamber, the blade of the masamune resting over his shoulder pauldron. In his left hand, the severed head of Jenova – freshly cut. The slave crown was gone and power seemed to flow from the two of them – and be sucked in by them as well.

"How dare you," Sephiroth coughed, and as he limped down the staircase, he kicked the Buster sword away from them – below Zack's still body.

Sephiroth paused for a moment after reaching the bottom of the staircase – perhaps he was contemplating killing Cloud. Eventually, he looked down at Jenova's head with something akin to love and sauntered off, leaving a thin trail of blood behind him.

"Cloud…" Zack coughed, "…Kill Sephiroth!"

Cloud nodded.

* * *

Sephiroth kicked Mayor Lockheart's body off the walkway and down into the pool of mako waste below.

"SEPHIROTH!" Cloud screamed, running at him unarmed – but with a kind of determination expected of a SOLDIER.

"Don't push your luck," Sephiroth swung the blade around and when Cloud was close enough, jabbed the sword in his direction.

The blade went right through Cloud – piercing through his blue armour, his skin and bone and lung. His eyes bulged and he let out a choked whimper as Sephiroth looked at his prey.

With ease, Sephiroth raised the sword into the air – with Cloud skewered on the end of it. The cut was so neat, blood wasn't dripping down – even though they both knew that the blade had ruptured Cloud's heart.

Living was an excruciating pain; every pulse was an eternity of torture – every breath felt like getting stabbed all over again.

But Cloud shook his head, and the sword began to tremble.

Sephiroth's eyes widened a little. He wasn't sure what was happening.

Finding the strength, Cloud moved his arms from their lifeless, dangling position. He reached up with them and grabbed the blade that extended far in front of his chest.

Sephiroth's eyes widened more.

The grip on the sword was so strong, his gloves and hands were cut and blood dripped onto the walkway. Cloud pulled on the blade, sliding it further and further into himself.

The blade extended further and further out of Cloud's back as he pulled himself along the sword until finally, he could feel his toes touch the ground. He was close enough to breathe into Sephiroth's face.

"Impossible!" Sephiroth cried, the genuine fear filling his face again.

Without words, Cloud took control of the blade - it belonged to him now. Sephiroth held on tightly, but to his doom. Cloud leaned back and through pure adrenaline, lifted the rest of the sword – with Sephiroth attached – from the walkway. Cloud jerked to the side and threw Sephiroth off of the platform and towards the great iron wall.

Sephiroth collided with the wall and was too shocked to prepare any defence – his head smashed against the iron and he dropped down, missing the walkway. Cloud watched as Sephiroth clutched onto Jenova's head as he tumbled down, down, down and was consumed by the pool of mako waste.

Cloud fell to his knees – the masamune now irrevocably lodged in his organs. He leaned forward until the hilt of the sword came to rest on the walkway, and he could lean forward no more. The blade of the sword pointed upwards out of his body, and he closed his eyes.


	123. In the Lifestream: Zack and Cloud

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 17**

**In the Lifestream: Zack and Cloud**

Zack floated in a man-sized test tube, breathing in green mako. Years passed. His life flashed before his eyes, and some things he should not – _could_ not have remembered himself also passed before him, the result of the mako inside of him.

The buster sword had once belonged to a general in the Mako War. When Phillip Gainsborough died, Sephiroth picked up the sword and fought with his own masamune in his stronger left hand. He used the buster sword in his right. He took the capital of Wutai that night, with sword in each hand.

Zack fell asleep for months at a time, waking up to the same view of the Shinra library in the basement of the mansion. The mako talked to him, telling him things that were irrelevant. Things that he would never understand. Vincent Valentine sleeps in the next room and won't wake up for years. This library will one day be obliterated by meteorites. One of your ex-girlfriends has destroyed a mako reactor. The guide – Tiffany – has reached Midgar. Heidegger has ordered the Turks to kill the head of Peace Preservation. Jessie Kerrigan is planning to bomb another reactor. Aeris still waits for you. Aeris still loves you.

The thick bastard sword had been thrown into an armoury in Junon until Zack Knightblade was chosen as a Third-class SOLDIER. He was thrown on a routine mission to Icicle Inn to investigate some rabbit attacks on the local pets. Sephiroth had been assigned there as well, and took the young Zack into the armoury to find him the legendary sword. Sephiroth kept humble about it, but explained to Zack that the sword had a sentimental significance, and that if Zack were to use it, it would please him. Who was Zack to say no?

The rabbits were six feet tall – the stuff of nightmares.

Long story short (as his father Mel always used to say) Sephiroth, Zack and their MP escorts fell into the great glacier. One of them lost his helmets – the only way they could of found him in his snow covered body – his hair was bright yellow. Sephiroth, Zack, and the two MPs would form an unbreakable super-team from then on, scaling the glacier like it was nothing. They made their way back up the mountainside – Cloud (the boy with yellow hair) seemed to survive by persistence alone. Zack and him got along the best – Sephiroth was still too famous, too untouchable. The other MP was unfriendly to say the least.

But now he was dead, and so was Sephiroth. Zack could see Cloud loating in a tube beside him. Their tubes were connected. Experiments? And who was doing them? Was Shina nursing them back to health? How long was it going to take?

Zack had been injured by the Midgar Zolom on a mission to the mythril mines. It had attacked their boat and Cloud had shot it but to no avail. Only Sephiroth's masamune had caused it to flee. Zack had been wounded and if it hadn't been for Cloud's quick draw, he would be dead.

It was no question that Cloud had skills – he was a candidate for third class at least. Why, then, had he not been chosen? His low self-confidence was at times crippling, but when it came to truly dangerous situations, he always seemed to scrape by, not afraid to get in the rough and tumble when the going got tough. The other escort did what escorts do – stand back and fire when necessary. Cloud got in there beside them. Cloud wanted to help; Zack could feel his desire to do good bleeding out of his sweat.

There was no sweat anymore – no smells or tastes. No feeling of gravity or notice of the liquid on his skin, in his nose. He was a nothing. After the fourth year, when Hojo took a sample of his blood and injected it into Cloud, Zack realized that they weren't to be healed. They were to be tested on and thrown away, like the freaks in the pods.

Like Sephiroth.

The day he decided that Tifa was right – that Shinra and SOLDIER were worth hating – that his pride and dreams and desires had been a tangled mass of deception – was the day he decided to break himself and Cloud free.

A guard stood in the rooms at all times, watching them (in case they should suddenly turn into monsters?). Once in a while, he would walk up to the tubes and inspect the subjects. Zack learned how to time this – it was approximately half an hour between the guard's curious examinations. He could begin to gather his strength five minutes before.

He counted in his head – without being able to move his fingers or toes – until just before the guard came to look at them, to taunt them.

The muscles in Zack's hand ached as he curled them into a fist. He could tell, just by the way his muscles had atrophied – it had been nearly five years. He tried to summon the strength he had earlier – the strength that had allowed him to control gravity during his battle with Sephiroth. Some inner magic that needed no materia. He didn't even know where to begin.

_'What would Cloud__ do?'_ he asked himself. The presence of mako in a SOLDIER meant nothing to Zack – what really mattered in a fight was the mind. Cloud had a stronger mind than Zack. A mind that had beaten Sephiroth before their swords had even clashed. Cloud wasn't a SOLDIER, but he was a damn good man. He would perservere, until every last drop was spent.

Before the guard could notice it was already too late. Zack's fist pounded through the glass and the rushing current of green mako exploding out shattered the front of the tube.

The glass and mako showered over the guard and before he could scream, the mako poisoning took him and he became a convulsing mass of flesh on the ground. Zack landed atop him. He was shaking. Five years exposed to such high degrees of mako, he must have been really resilient to it. Perhaps that was what allowed him to rise to the ranks of a first class SOLDIER. No, that was all Sephiroth's doing. Sephiroth, who had taken Zack under his wing from squadling to first class – who had treated him like a brother. Who had sliced him neatly down the middle.

Opening the door to Cloud's tube was easy enough. Zack had seen Hojo do it many times. The square panel of glass in front of Cloud's defunct body slid open and mako waste spilled onto the floor as Cloud was carried out with it.

The yellow haired MP landed on the stone floor with a mere grunt. Zack leaned down beside him.

"I'm so sorry, Cloud," Zack said. He slung one of Cloud's limp arms over his shoulders and lifted the MP to his feet. Cloud couldn't stand on his own, his body listlessly bobbed forward and his head rested torpidly on Zack's shoulder. He didn't say a word, merely small gargles to prove he was alive, but he certainly wasn't awake.

They limped to the far shelves where the buster sword lay like a trophy. Zack picked up the blade – it had been so heavy the first time he lifted it. Now it was a comfortable weight, a familiar strain on his arms. It clipped to the magnetic hold on his back. "All right, Cloud. Let's get out of here before Hojo finds us!"

They limped past the door where Vincent Valentine slept, through the cavernous tunnel to the winding stairs, out of the bedroom and down into the mansions foyer. Out the doors and out into the town.

It had been completely rebuilt. The only signs of the fire from five years ago was the singed iron gate to the Shinra mansion. Zack made haste out of town, with Cloud's benumbed feet dragging two small tracks after them. They escaped into the wilderness.

* * *

Wolves had served as meals for the first few weeks as Zack made their way slowly across the Nibel Valley towards the Valley of the Fallen Star. Cloud's eyes were open, but he was unresponsive. He would swallow the food when prompted to the back of his throat, but his head bobbed and made no noises except the occasional grunt.

His eyes glowed where they had not before the incident. Zack ruffled the boys hair, in hopes that he would be roused from his mako poisoning and leap to his feet as resilient as ever. That never happened. And Cloud was no longer a boy, he had grown to twenty or older. Their bodies had aged, but his mind felt the same, spry and youthful.

When the nights began to bring chills to him, they were half-way across the Valley of the Fallen Star. He had taken up the regrettable habit of talking to Cloud – simply to stave off boredom. Hopefully, he would remember.

* * *

His intuition told him that the reactor in Gongaga had exploded (and it seemed to him that someone he knew was the culprit). As he dragged Cloud into town, he saw blue suits near his house.

The Turks.

He sat Cloud down against a tree – the body slumped back against the wood. Zack thrust the buster sword into the dirt in front of him – to shield him from possible bullets, to conceal him. There were too many reasons. Zack could handle being unarmed. After all, he was in SOLDIER, right? And what are SOLDIERs good at?

"Diplomacy," he smiled at himself as he strode towards the red-headed Turk. "Howdy, Reno."

Reno turned around and his jaw dropped. "Zack?! What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came to see my folks."

"That's not possible," came a deep voice behind him, and Rude put his hand gently on Zack's shoulder.

The Turks led him away from town square. "I don't know what hole you just crawled out of," Reno shook his head. "Everyone is looking for you. President Shinra has ordered the army to kill you on sight. You're lucky the Turks haven't agreed to join the manhunt."

"You guys would do that for me? How sweet."

"Don't flatter yourself. I'd kill you myself if Tseng hadn't ordered me not to."

"What happened to Heidegger?"

"He's been promoted. Tseng's in charge now, and he's letting his personal feelings get in the way of business – he's practically causing civil war within Shinra Inc. He's put a permanent lock on your status as a SOLDIER, which is causing major unrest."

"Tseng and I never clicked," Zack smirked, "I didn't know he cared."

"I didn't say the feelings were for you," Reno shook his head, "He just doesn't want to look like an asshole. Man, you're slow. Well buckle up, because traipsing around in your old stomping grounds is going to get you killed."

"I came here to see my parents."

"And you think that there aren't five sharpshooters hanging around town right now? Grow a brain, buddy. Get out of here before I notify them."

"Don't you want to know where I've been for the last five years? Or why everyone is looking for me?"

"We're Turks. We go where Tseng tells us to go."

"Unless…" Rude offered.

"Right, thanks Rude. Unless we're on holiday. Even if you told me, what does it matter? You're property of Shinra Inc., if they want to get rid of you, it doesn't matter what you have or haven't done."

"You don't really believe that," Zack shook his head, "I've seen you both choose the right thing over the lawful thing. You sound like me five years ago."

"Changed for the better, have you? Must be nice on your high horse, being a fugitive and all."

"I gave Shinra everything I could. I gave them my life. I may have killed my best friend… is Sephiroth dead?"

Rude shrugged, "His blood was all over the crime scene, but the reactor was empty."

"There were four of us."

"We assumed Hojo took you all, but he submitted that Sephiroth was dead."

Zack blinked away a stinging moisture in his eyes. "So you know that Hojo took us."

"He'll be expecting you to come looking for him," Reno warned, "I'd reconsider any sinister plans you have cooking."

"Revenge is the last thing on my mind. Hojo can keep the years he took from me, the data he'd collected. I will never fight Shinra. I love it too much – with my heart and soul. The only thing I would like to do with my life is live it freely. I just want to retire."

He saw genuine compassion in Reno's face that confirmed his earlier suspicions. The three of them knew – even at this juncture – that it was never to be.

"I need you two to do me a favour."

"Is that an order?"

"From a SOLDIER in a military situation? Yes it is. I'm pulling rank on you, buddy."

"Well, Rude. It looks like we have a job. Keep in mind, Zack, that by doing this we'll have to report to Tseng, and he'll know your whereabouts."

"You would have done that anyway."

Reno laughed, "You're right, I just wanted leverage."

"What do you want?" Rude asked.

"I need a change of clothes. I have a few outfits just like this one in my old room, could you bring me one of them?"

"I don't see how that could be harmful to the thousands of troops out trying to fill you with lead," Reno hummed, "In fact, it might help them with the smell, ha ha. Yes, sir. Mission accepted."

They ran into town and Zack was left with his thoughts. The permanent SOLDIER status would be great for securing trips across the ocean – but it would still be hard to stay under the radar. Unless Tseng was helping him. How far was that man willing to go for the affection of a girl?

_'About as far as me,' _Zack laughed. He wondered why Tseng and he had never been closer. They obviously shared common interests, including Zack's wellbeing.

They came back with a suit nearly identical to his own (a little bit of a purple hue was on these, from poor washing). "Do my parents know why you came into my house?"

"Gongaga has been bending over for Shinra for the last four years, since the reactor exploded. Your parents don't have a clue, man. Don't worry. They think you're too busy to contact them, which isn't untrue. Now get out of here before I get tired of you."

"Thanks again. About the reactor here, I know who caused the explosion."

"It was four years ago and people have already been punished for it. The real culprits don't matter."

"It was a woman named Jessie Kerrigan, and she's heading towards Midgar to start up a rebel faction. Don't ask me how I know, I just know."

"Why are you telling us this?"

"Like I said, I cannot bring myself to forget my love for Shinra. Also, I want Midgar to be a peaceful place by the time I get there, so cut it out with this civil war bullshit. Aeris will understand if Tseng tries to kill me. He can try all he likes, he's still not taking my woman."

"…I'll make sure to tell him that."

"Then I look forward to our next meeting. See ya, fellas."

* * *

Zack dragged Cloud to a particularly secluded bit of forest and undressed him out of his MP suit. He began to talk.

"I thought I'd introduce you to my folks, debrief at home for a while. Looks like we need a change of plans. Midgar is on my to-do list, buddy, so we're going to go there. I hope Jessie isn't bombing reactors when we get there – and I hope she knows how to make a fake ID. When we get there we'll give her a stern talking to for all her mischief. Girls, though, eh? They can get away with so much. You'd like her, she's the fiery type like you... She's not really my type, I go for the slight, airy type. You'll meet her too, she gets along with everyone so I'm sure you two will click. I hope you're up for a trip half-way around the world, I know lying like a corpse over my shoulder is hard work, but you'll thank me for it. If you could help me change you it would be greatly appreciated."

Cloud provided no assistance and Zack had to painstakingly pull off the blue uniform. Underneath, Cloud was skinny as usual, but his muscles were rock hard and bigger. Undressed, he looked like a SOLDIER.

"Holy! Buddy, if I had known you were getting a major makeover in that tube, I'd have thought twice about setting you free… I'm just kidding, you're better off out here with me. It may not seem like the best of circumstances for now, but you'll see. One day, we'll look back on all of this and laugh. You old bobble-head, you. Here, try this on. The colours have been altered a bit, but don't complain."

Birds chirped as he dressed Cloud up exactly like himself. "I figure that they are looking for a lone SOLDIER, but since you look the part of a SOLDIER now, we are now two SOLDIERs. Now we can avoid the really dumb squadlings – and if the kind of guys we knew five years ago were anything to go by, we can expect to run into a few before Midgar. You look pretty good in that!" He snapped on the suspenders – the final touch. "But something is missing."

Cloud slumped back against the tree, fully garbed in SOLDIER gear. His shoulders were bare. "Oh, Cloud, man! You don't have any armour! Don't worry, I've got half of mine to spare."

Taking off his left pauldron and pad, he fastened them to Cloud's suspenders. He took off his left armlet and fastened it to Cloud's left arm. "Now when you get your bearings straight, we can match. Half each – like friendship bracelets."

Cloud said nothing, he only bobbed his head, staring vacantly at the mossy ground. "Well, enough chit-chat. Let's get a move on."

* * *

The old man in the rusting pickup truck had found them in the Midgar Mountains on the Highroad, a dangerous rocky trail leading from North Junon through the mountains to the southern Wastelands – and Midgar. The truck was as yellow as Cloud's hair, and for the first hour Zack made nothing but jokes about the coincidental colouration. That, and thanking the old man for picking them up (and not trying to shoot them on sight, but he didn't tell him that). Cloud lay across the open cargo area and Zack stood beside him, feeling the December wind on his skin.

Zack's goofy smile was still plastered on his face, but his spirits were worn. They had run into trouble everywhere they went – from roads in between towns to quiet hamlets to the boat across the ocean. Getting through Junon Harbour unnoticed was the trick of a lifetime, and the high from their victory was only beginning to wane. But, despite all the MPs they had encountered, Zack couldn't remember seeing a single SOLDIER.

"The Turks oughtta be on to us now," Zack said, quietly so that the driver would not hear him, "I wonder why we haven't seen anyone else like me. Maybe they were disbanded after the Nibelheim Incident. Maybe they all died when Sephiroth cut off Jenova's head – linked to her. I believe I lost my Jenova cells. I feel weaker. I think that maybe Hojo put mine into you, Cloud. That whole mess was too confusing, it's better to just forget the whole thing. They're all dead, so nothing will come of it. The question is what to do now that it's all behind us. _Yo, old guy_! We at Midgar yet?"

"Shaddap!" came the gruff voice from the inside, "You're lucky I even gave you a ride."

Zack looked out beyond the roof of the truck. The red and brown of the rocks began to dull as they neared Midgar, the land began to wither. How wonderful Shinra was that they could make a metropolis thrive in such a horrible place. Why would Jessie want to cause unrest in such a place?

Zack sat down beside Cloud. "What're you going to do once we get to Midgar?"

No response, just the familiar bobbing.

"I know what I'm gonna do. I can crash at my girl's for a while – oh wait, her mother lives there too… I guess that's out."

Cloud still said nothing. Zack continued anyway. "Yyyep! Gotta change my plans! Well, no matter what I do I'll need some money first."

No response.

"Hey, Cloud. Want to start a business? Do you think there's anything I'd be good at?" No response. "_Hey old guy_! What do you think I'm good at?"

"What're you yapping about? You're still young, aintcha? Young folks should try everything. You gotta pay your dues while you're young. Go out and look for what you really want."

Zack turned back to Cloud. "Try everything. Heh, that's easy for him to say."

They drove along for another few hours in silence before the idea came to Zack. It burst into his brain like a bullet and struck a nerve that shook him to his core. He couldn't help but cry out a loud exclaimation that startled the driver and sent the truck swerving along the uphill slope. Despite the old man's muffled condemnations, Zack had the biggest grin on his face that he had since taking that picture back Nibelheim.

"Hey! I got a lot of brains and skills that a lot of guys don't! That settles it, then! I'm gonna become a mercenary! Yeah, thanks pops!"

"Hey! Didn't you hear a word I said?!"

"Listen! I'm gonna become a mercenary and that's that! Boring stuff, dangerous stuff Anything for money. I'm gonna be rich!"

He turned to the lifeless body in the back of the truck with him. "So, Cloud. What are _you_ gonna do?"

"U…uhhhh…." Cloud gurgled, bobbing his head uselessly.

"I'm just kiddin'. I won't leave you hanging like that." A gentle hand reached and patted Cloud's bare shoulder. "We're friends, right?"

There was no response, but Zack could feel the strings of destiny being pulled. He put his forehead against Cloud's and it supported him. Cloud stared blankly ahead and Zack looked into his eyes as their foreheads met strongly. "Mercenaries, Cloud. That's what you and me are gonna be. Understand, Cloud?"

* * *

There was a spot where Zack used to come and think – atop a high cliff overlooking Midgar. The driver continued on down the mountains towards the city, but Zack got off at the crest of the last mountain. He sat Cloud down safely near a ledge.

"Don't go anywhere, man," Zack ruffled Cloud's hair playfully. "I'm just going to make sure the coast is clear, and then it's just a matter of breaking into the slums. We're almost home free."

He left Cloud safely out of sight. As he turned the first bend, the sight of an MP completely caught him off guard.

The MP cocked his semi-automatic at him – and, like a wave rippling out behind him, so did the guns of another few hundred infantrymen.

They stood on every ledge of the dynamic series of short cliffs and rocks; Zack was surrounded. his first hope was that they hadn't yet discovered that he wasn't alone – the Turks never knew and those who had tried to kill them earlier were dispatched before notifying anyone else.

"I never wanted to fight Shinra, you know," Zack said, "but you people sure have a death wish."

He stood before an audience of hundreds, all guns pointed at him. Silence filled the mountain top. Zack felt the wind rustling through his hair. If this was to be his last stand, what a glorious way to go it was. He breathed in deeply, tasting the thin air and the earth blowing in the wind. He knew, somewhere, that this would be the last time he would be without pain and he drank it in – not with sorrow, but with gratitude for lasting this long.

The guns shook with anticipation when he reached for his sword, but they never fired. Zack had grown into a legend, ripping discord through Shinra Inc., killing any who encountered him, running across the world underneath their noses. The sword was released from its magnetic hold and he brought it slowly forward to his front – and the silence held. He brought the broad side of the blade up to his forehead and rested against it for a moment. He closed his eyes and thanked the sword for its services, and prayed that after him it would go to his successor.

The guns were still trained on him, but he smiled, knowing he was faster still. He would not go down without a fight.

"Come and get it," he winked.

* * *

The sounds of explosions, gunfire and spells went unnoticed by Cloud. He sat against the rock wall until the battle seemed over. It was all quiet and a single drop of rain fell on Cloud's head. He didn't flinch, he only stared catatonically at the stone ground.

Zack limped from around the corner, bloody around the mouth with wounds all over him. He was breathing coarsely, but he smiled at Cloud. He let one of his hands off of the hilt of the sword to reach for him. As if on cue, bullets struck into his chest.

He staggered backwards towards the edge of the cliff as bullets pounded into his body. He fell to the ground at the cliff's edge as two blue-clad infantrymen and their red suited captain ran past Cloud and surrounded the body of Zack.

They unloaded their clips into Zack, who twitched and gyrated with every bullet into his chest. His eyes were wide. He reached up for the sky. There wasn't any time given to him for final thoughts, nor a heartfelt goodbye. There was only pain until the end.

The killers ran off as the rain began to pick up – not noticing the gargling body dressed like the fugitive sitting against a rock.

* * *

As Zack died, something awoke in Cloud. The Jenova cells suddenly came to after their long sleep, and tried desperately to make sense of the situation. They had been stored in the black-haired SOLDIER and had given him superhuman abilities – helped him grow and develop. Jenova would have been able to control him easily – he trusted the cells completely. As a SOLDIER, he had been trained to turn his brain off and trust his instincts. They _were_ his instincts. When the time came – when the day came that Jenova would rouse from her slumber – he would understand her orders like he would understand his own thoughts. But they had been taken from their host and placed in a weaker one. They had transformed the body to suit their needs, but his mind was strong. He wasn't an adequate puppet.

They had solved this by simply negating his access to a mind at all – since the strong one still lived for him – they could feel the traces of themselves lingering in his bloodstream. The two were connected by blood – Cloud and Zack. They were one and the same now.

Perhaps that was the answer.

Slowly, the Jenova cells began to work their way into the crevices of Cloud Strife's brain, erasing the things that gave him cause to doubt his instincts, replacing them with memories they carried over from their last host.

Zack's memories became Cloud's memories. Zack's personality became Cloud's personality.

* * *

There was a problem with the process only once. Cloud's mind fought back – or perhaps it was traces of Zack's memory fighting for its right to an existence. In any case, something inside of the new host halted the process and Cloud began to move.

His legs wouldn't budge; they had atrophied. Cloud used his arms to drag himself through the dirt in the rain. Across the battlefield he crawled – slowly, painfully. Rocks in the mountaintop cut into his arms.

He reached the blood soaked body of Zack. His eyes were closed; his face expressionless. Cloud crawled atop him and lay his head down on the chest. Steam was still rising from the corpse. Blood soaked into his yellow hair.

**_This isn't happening_**, says a voiceless voice. **_You must forget what you are seeing._**

A second message appeared to combat Jenova – a message of hope. Cloud's voice, as the real him split away from the image Jenova was creating for him. **_You must remember. I will always be inside of you._**

**_Pick up the sword. It's your sword._**

**_No. The sword belongs to your best friend Zack. You are the only evidence he existed._**

**_There is no person named Zack._**

Jenova was winning. Cloud's hand reached out and grabbed the sword. The cells in his blood swelled his muscles and he picked the twenty kilogram sword up with ease. Like he had been using it his whole life.

**_See how familiar this weight is? The sword is yours._**

**_No! I won't have it!_**

Jenova was quicker, and soon the voice of young Cloud was cast aside. The intricate weaving of Jenova's web came to its climax. One last bout of protest came from the true Cloud in the form of a scream.

Rearing his head back, Cloud let out a passionate, wailing cry, still hunched over Zack's body; overlooking Midgar and its smoggy shield from the rain. The same stinging rain that fell on the mountaintop and washed the blood off of his face. The scream was deafened by the silent void of the Wastelands. He fell off the cliff and the cells worked quickly to keep him alive. He rolled to the bottom, near the gates of Midgar until he was found and brought to the train station of Sector 7. All traces of Zack Knightblade were gone. The Jenova cells would help him - return them to her head for the Reunion, even if they had to show him images worth chasing.

The true Cloud returned a few times, forcing him to ask himself questions about the truth of his story. Keeping sacred memories locked away in hidden places where Jenova would never think to look.

But now Cloud had seen them plainly – as had Tifa. All the pieces of Cloud came into one – the boy, the young man, the SOLDIER, the coward, and the great, floating Cloud in the sea of stars above them in his subconscious, illusionary world. As Cloud found himself, he and Tifa found each other and met somewhere in the Lifestream.


	124. Book 5: Affirmation

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 17**

**Affirmation**

At approximately three in the afternoon on March thirteenth, the secluded town of Mideel was destroyed by the Planet. A warm, rushing subterranean current rich in mako came through cracks in the ground caused by Weapon and swallowed the town whole.

The six members of the terrorist faction AVALANCHE had made a narrow escape from the destruction and stood at the shore of a circular, glowing lake. Barret Wallace, the former leader of AVALANCHE and the only member who had seen everything – from the destruction of the first mako reactors in Midgar to the summoning of Meteor – waited there at the shore in bitter silence, trying to find a way to blame this destruction on himself. Cid Highwind, the temporary leader of AVALANCHE in Cloud Strife's absence, waited beside him, smoking a cigarette. Nanaki stood at their feet, the tip of his mohawked mane grazing Cid's elbow. Behind them, Vincent and Yuffie stood side by side, and in her arms, Yuffie held Cait Sith, who watched the glowing pool attentively.

The two figures drifting towards them in the lake had emerged a few seconds earlier, and it had been too far away to see them. The speed at which they rose to the surface implied that they had swam to the top together, but upon reaching the air, they collapsed face-down onto the surface of the lake.

From this distance, they could see that the figures were Cloud and Tifa. There were no cries of joy yet – they were still lifeless looking as they drifted slowly towards AVALANCHE's position.

Cid's cigarette never left his mouth, his hands were frozen at his sides. Smoke entered one side of his mouth and blew out the other, his eyes moving back and forth between the two floating bodies.

When they washed up on floating wood boards (former roofs and walls) Barret was the one to step into the water with his enormous boots and pluck them both from the lake. His feet didn't touch water – even so, he could feel something penetrating the leather of his boots and clawing at him. The Lifestream walk affecting him, and even though he shook his head to get clear of it, he could feel it tempting him to jump into the lake and end all of this madness forever. As he slung Cloud and Tifa over his broad shoulders, the feeling became a whining buzz in his head and he stopped for a moment, looking into the lake.

"Get outta there," Cid barked at him. Barret looked back at them.

"Y-yeah…" he agreed, and brought the soaking bodies ashore, making sure that the drops didn't touch his skin.

They were laid on the grass in the jungle. Two of the armoured rock-animals Tifa had encountered last week grazed nearby, but did not seem to pose a threat at the moment.

As the bodies were laid down, everyone watched and waited.

* * *

When Tifa opened her eyes at last, she saw things – real things – for the first time in what seemed like forever. Barret stood over her. "You awright?" he asked.

'_Barret,'_ she thought, but no sound came out. She had to use her voice from now on. "Barret, I... where's Cloud?" She sat up quickly – the dizziness came but she stayed up.

"Don't worry about him, he's a tough one." She looked behind her to see him lying on a pile of weeds and wooden splinters – but he was breathing.

"When I was in the Lifestream, I saw the real Cloud – he had been shattered into a million pieces, some were young, and small, and some were as large as buildings. And I found out the truth. We found it. He found it on his own. I can't describe it."

Barret smiled, "You're some kinda lady."

She lowered herself slowly back to the bed of weeds she had been laid on. She was so exhausted. She closed her eyes. "People have so many things pent up inside of themselves," she said. "And they can forget so many things. Strange, isn't it?"

She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

* * *

Sunlight hit Cloud's face and he was roused to wakefulness. He was in a large room, on a bed. He had no clothing. Out the window, the sun shone and wisps of cloud drifted by. When he moved his legs and arms to sit up, they ached. He hadn't used them in so long. After handing the black materia to Sephiroth an eternity ago, he fell into a melting world, and swam in darkness until Tifa came into him and showed him the way to truth.

That had been real, hadn't it? How did he come to be in this room? The experience had been so real, but so unbelievable. He wasn't sure how to react to it. How was he supposed to react to merging with someone else's soul? To discovering all of that truth, hidden beneath so many layers of madness?

His legs ached as he stood up, and he walked to the window. Outside, the ground was kilometres down and descending, as if the room he was in were a large elevator. The ground was a small, tropical island, and the ocean spanned farther than he could see. This wasn't the Gold Saucer, it was the wrong area. Where was he?

He moved to a closet, and opened it up to find his old clothes, washed and cleaned. He put them on – including his pauldron and sword. Who knew what could be outside the door.

He examined the bathroom – a swanky tiled room as big as the bedroom of his childhood, complete with a large bathtub, shower and two sinks. On the wall, there was a crimson diamond logo with an inverted white triangle at the top of it. The Shinra logo.

Cloud looked around more, confused as ever, and he searched for bombs and traps. There were none. He returned to the window and looked down. The island was a small dot on the horizon, and wherever he was, it was turning. The sky turned purple where they were turning, and Meteor showed its great face, angrily breathing out the fiery tendrils that made up its tail. Cloud looked at the second moon and cursed it. He pulled himself away from its gaze and concentrated on leaving this strange place. He moved to the doorway and opened it, stepping out into a grated, metal walkway lined with doors just like his. The door across the hall was labelled Yuffie Kisaragi.

Were they in prison? Some fabulous, rich prison? He looked to the right – a long hallway with many of the same oval shaped doors. To the left, there was more of the same with a staircase taking up half the hallway a few doors down.

He heard a clanking coming up the stairs at the end of the hallway to the right. It sounded like two (or perhaps three) sets of feet coming up the stairs.

Alone and confused, Cloud drew his sword.

As the figure reached the top of the stairs, they both stopped and looked at each other.

"Nanaki," Cloud put the sword away, "I'm sorry."

"You are awake!" the beast said happily and bounded towards him. "I am so relieved!"

It was a relief to see him too. "Where are we?"

"We are on the _Highwind_."

"The airship, of course! Is everyone here?"

"Yes, we even re-made Cait Sith. You were the last one, Cloud. Now, we have everyone."

'_Almost everyone,'_ he thought, and realized that it was surely mid-spring now, and he had missed a lot of things. "I want to get caught up. Is there a place where everyone meets?"

"Yes, down the stairs is the conference room. I will tell everyone to meet you there in five minutes."

"Make it ten, Nanaki. I want to take a look around."

"Of course, Cloud!"

Nanaki turned and headed down the stairs. Cloud was about to speak, but the beast was already gone. _'I didn't mean alone…'_

Still lost but less confused, Cloud stepped to the door across from him. Still unable to shake his habit of forgetting to knock, he pressed the button on the wall beside the door and walked into the room as the door slid open – only to stumble upon Yuffie wearing naught but a lime green towel.

"Gah! Do you mind?"

"I'm sorry!" he averted his eyes as the door closed behind him. He looked on the wall beside the door for another button but couldn't find one. "I don't know how to get out."

"Give me a minute," there was shuffling and rustling behind him. "Good to see you."

He almost turned around but stopped himself. "You too."

"What do you mean by that?!"

"I didn't mean… I mean it's good to be back."

"You've got some explaining to do. Barret's gonna want to give you a beating."

"He has every right to. Can I turn around now?"

"Yes."

He turned around to find she wasn't clothed at all, but standing in her underwear as she finished clipping on her small bra. Cloud moved his gaze to the wall behind her – in this room, there was no window. "I was wondering how your motion sickness was doing."

"I've been better," she said, walking across his gaze to the closet on the right side of the room. "I was planning on lying in bed and moaning all day." He didn't look at her, but could've sworn he saw her wink, "after a shower, though, I'm fine for a few minutes."

"I've never tried that," he said, "When I was in Shinra, we drove around in buggies a lot, so I got motion sickness often. If you remember, they don't usually come with showers. The one thing you don't want to do is read. Ugh. I get dizzy thinking about it."

Yuffie stopped and turned to him, "Did you really just walk into my room to talk about motion sickness?"

"No. You should know something."

"What is it, Cloud?"

"We'll be meeting in the conference room in ten minutes to debrief. I'll be visiting all the rooms, making sure everyone is there."

"You've been conscious for all of five minutes and you're already giving orders on Cid's ship."

"I was just saying because I don't know how to get there."

"Oh," she laughed, "I'll show you. Just give me a second to throw something on." Khaki short-shorts, green top and ornamental sleeve. She looked the same as always. "Well," she smiled at him, "I figure since the old times are back, might as well look the part. Let's go."

* * *

She led him to the conference room, where everyone stood around the ornate oak table. All eyes turned to him as Yuffie took her spot around the table and he walked slowly around everyone to the front. On the table to his left were Tifa, Nanaki, and Cait Sith riding on Mog. To his right, Barret, Vincent, Cid and Yuffie by the doors. It was quiet for a moment as all eyes were on him. They wanted an explanation, the same way as they had wanted an explanation the morning after Aeris' death.

"Everyone," he started, "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say…"

Nanaki shook his head, "Then do not say anything, Cloud. All you have been doing is apologizing."

Cloud nodded thoughtfully at this, but continued any way.

"I was never a member of SOLDIER," he announced, and took a beat. He could feel the words resonating in the group, in Tifa. And in himself. He said it out loud. He owned the fact. It hurt, so he pushed harder. "I made up the stories about what happened to me five years ago, about being in SOLDIER. I left my village looking for glory, but never made it in SOLDIER. I was only ever a squadling for the Military Police force, escorting SOLDIERs on their missions around the world.

"I was so ashamed of being weak, but then I heard this story from my friend Zack… and I created an illusion of myself based upon what I had seen in my life. And I continued to play the charade as if it were true."

"Illusion, huh?" Barret crossed his arms, "Pretty damn strong for an illusion, I'd say."

"I'm physically built like someone in SOLDIER. I was made this way after the Nibelheim incident. Hojo's plan to clone Sephiroth wasn't that difficult, he simply did the same thing as he had done a thousand times before with any member of SOLDIER. You see, members of SOLDIER aren't just infused with mako – their bodies are injected with Jenova cells. Those men in black cloaks were – all of them – members of SOLDIER. But, for better or for worse, only the strong can enter SOLDIER – it has nothing to do with the Jenova Reunion. Hojo injected me with Jenova cells after the Nibelheim incident and the cells rejected my weak body somewhat, resulting in my unstable mental state, but, fortunately, I didn't turn out like the men in black cloaks. At least, not entirely…

"So here I am. Cloud Strife, master of my own illusionary world. But I can't remain trapped in an illusion anymore. I'm going to live my life without pretending."

"But even so," Tifa said, "You still have Jenova cells inside of you."

"The cells and experimentation are what caused me to look like a SOLDIER, and to have the abilities that I do. My weak body and the cells, however, had been rejecting each other from day one. I wouldn't be surprised if Jenova took them back at the northern crater."

"How is that possible?" Tifa asked.

"I felt it too," Nanaki said, "When Rufus shot me, I could feel more than blood seeping out of me – it was as if I was being drained of a toxin. It was exhausting."

"Yes. When I gave the black materia to Sephiroth, I could feel my arm swelling with a sort of dull pain and a pulling – like my soul was being sucked out through my arm and towards Jenova's head."

"You're sure messed up, Cloud." Tifa shook her head.

"So you're no different now from before the Nibelheim incident?" Barret asked.

"We have been freed from the curse of Jenova," Nanaki said, "But that means she has all of her cells once more, and you, Cloud, are left without the tiny organisms that gave you your immeasurable power."

"I was infused with mako as well," Cloud said, "I should still be able to fight like a SOLDIER, but if we're right, I no longer have the alien abilities Jenova endowed me with, such as flight."

"And going crazy," Yuffie sniffed from across the room.

Cloud couldn't help but smile, "Yeah, that too."

"So what does that mean?" Barret asked, "Don't tell me you're going to leave the ship!"

Cloud smiled at Barret's plea for him to stay, and thought about his words in January, about getting in the way, being more trouble than was worth. Had Barret changed, or had they met halfway? His smile faded as he thought about the future.

"I'm the reason Meteor is falling towards us," he said. "Which is why I have to do everything in my power to fight this thing."

"So you're gonna keep fightin' to save the Planet?"

"Well, it's like you always say, Barret."

Barret chuckled a bit. "Heh. You mean that."

"What?" Nanaki asked, "I don't understand."

Anyone who could muster a Barret impression suddenly shouted. "Ain't no getting' offa this train we're on!" and "The train we're on don't got no brakes!" And laughter resounded around the table.

"Now," Cloud said, relieved that the tension had been lifted, "What have I missed?"

Cait Sith hopped off of Mog and stood on the table, "The northern crater has been sealed with Sephiroth and Jenova inside – Meteor is approaching the Planet. Shinra Inc. kidnapped Barret and Tifa, and Heidegger wanted them executed. We tried to assassinate him but it was a no-go. Instead, we stole the airship and broke them free on the day of the execution, but Weapon attacked Junon. Meteor has been coming towards us and Shinra is after something called Huge Materia. They've made their move on two of them and we've intercepted them both. Cid and Barret were the two squad leaders."

"I'll take over, cat," Barret said, "Since we're in the neighbourhood of honesty and such, I'll say that our mission failed for a whole buncha reasons. North Corel has been destroyed."

"Barret, I'm sorry," Cloud said.

"It's all right. The Turks were there to take the huge materia from us and we took refuge at the Gold Saucer for three days until Cid's team made a rendez-vous. Cid?"

"We finished off the Shinra troops but some fucker killed the Condor right before I got 'im. The Condor's egg exploded and Tooth Rock was shaken up pretty bad. We secured the Huge Materia and brought it aboard. You can take a look at it if you like."

"With the huge materia, we could probably find a way to stop Meteor. I'm more interested in where Shinra is headed next, and what their purpose is."

"I know that there is a huge materia at the underwater reactor at Junon," Cait Sith offered, "As far as I know, that's the only one left."

Cloud looked at the others, who nodded at the cat. "I must have missed something else," he said, "No offence, whoever you are, but you still work for Shinra?"

"Yes I do. It's the easiest way for us to spy on them."

Barret put a hand on Cloud's shoulder, "Took me a while, too. But he's with us."

"And what about Marlene and Elmyra?"

"They're safe, healthy and happy. Marlene misses her father, and Elmyra is… mourning. After we stop Rufus from getting the Huge Materia, Barret and I are already making plans for a Shinra building raid."

"I look forward to it." Cloud said, "But in the meanwhile, we should head to Junon. I don't know if this will help us destroy Meteor, but while we're all alive, we have to do what we can, right?"

"We've already come to that conclusion," Tifa smiled. "But I'm glad you feel the same way, Cloud."

"You can use the Highwind to your liking," Cid said, "You may be the leader of AVALANCHE – and thank god it's not me – but on my ship, it's my rules."

The ship lurched to the side and Cid jumped, "Doesn't that fuckin' idiot Will know where we're going? Everyone, to the bridge!"

Cloud followed his companions out of the conference room and onto the bridge, where the pilot-in-training gripped the wooden wheel tightly. "Sorry about that," he said, "That black Weapon nearly broadsided us."

"Weapon is awake too," Cloud pondered, looking around the bridge.

"Whoa!" Cid's eyebrows flew skywards, "You've missed a lot! Yeah, they're crawling around all over the place, tearin' shit up – mostly the polluted areas of the world. We've taken to calling them by the names of gems, since they seem to look close enough like them. Shinra destroyed Sapphire Weapon a few weeks ago with the mako cannon. We've been calling this one Ultima Weapon."

Cloud watched as the huge black beast soared off. "She's not attacking us?"

"Our propellers are powered by a small mako engine – about one tenth as much power as Rocket, so we can slip under its radar. I don't want to make chances, so we're going to take a short detour over the Grasslands. We'll be landing outside Junon by tomorrow so until then, the ship is yours, Cloud."

"Thanks, Cid."

* * *

He found his way to the passenger deck easily enough, and was surprised at the lack of wind coming at him. It was still there to be sure, but it rippled his clothes only and his eyes stayed open with no problems. He moved to the front of the deck, underneath the _Highwind_'s great nose. The wind was stronger here, and his yellow hair poked at his cheeks in their greasy, spiky clumps.

Below him, an enormous field of green – it didn't look as endless as it had seemed from the ground. He could see – from high up here – the edge of the ocean cresting the horizon. He could see the mountains shaping the Bottleneck Pass; the cliffs looked like small steps. Kalm was a dot in the distance.

As the ship began to turn, he caught sight of a small, lonely tree in the middle of the green field. From above, it resembled a bush but Cloud knew what it was. The AVALANCHE Tree.

He was happy, thankful, proud to be alive. He breathed in the wind. It nipped at his lungs and made his sinuses cold. But it was real. He was real.


	125. Book 5: A Secret in the Deep

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 18**

**A Secret in the Deep**

_The Highwind_'s rusted metal sheet exterior camouflaged well enough with the mountainside, and they let down the ladder and cables. The crew descended and tied the ship to the mountainside. The morning was dark.

Cloud pulled out the old Fawlher maps, "Where exactly are we?"

Cid pointed at the map, "Between Bear's Cave and Junon. It's an hour walk, but it beats getting spotted by Shinra."

"Duly noted."

Cid turned to his crew, "Keep an eye out for Shinra planes, helicopters, monsters, anything. Bleer, you can take off at any time, just let us know. You have a PHS."

Will saluted. "Sir."

Eight figures marched across the Junon plains. It was a comfort to all of them to have such high numbers again – although the small army wasn't exactly easy to hide. They crested the mountains until they came around the cliffside and looked at the torn harbour.

Something struck Cloud as odd about Junon as soon as he came upon it. He couldn't place what it was, but the fortress looked different. Smaller, he thought. When they walked into the underbelly, he noticed larger changes. The houses were mostly gone, and pools of seawater still drained slowly back to sea.

"This city hasn't known rain for so long," Vincent observed, "and it has been destroyed by the waters that kept it living."

A small figure wandered through the ruins – it stumbled over the piles of broken bricks, wood and bodies (both human and sea creature). Cloud ran to the girl and leaned down to see her dirt-ridden face.

"Priscilla!" he held her.

"Who are you…?" the girl asked, dazed. She took a moment to look over his face. "Cloud?" She smiled gloriously. "You stupid jerk. Where have you been?"

Cloud smiled back, "Gone for a while. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Heard you were dead," the girl shook her head, "I knew it wasn't true. But you've gotta be more careful, because you're going to marry me one day."

"She's suffered head trauma," Yuffie had walked behind the girl, casting a healing spell. Priscilla's muscles tensed up in Cloud's arms and her eyebrows were raised as if to cry. Her eyes were unfocused.

"Cloud… do you still have that amulet I gave you?"

"Yes," he said, "It helped us out a great deal."

"I can take her back to the ship," Barret said, "I know how to take care-a sick babes."

Cloud stood up and looked Barret square in the face, "Thanks. I need you for this mission, though. Who else is going to mow down all those guards?"

Barret smirked and seemed concerned, still, for the child, but Cloud sensed that his words had hit something in the very core of him.

"Yuffie and Tifa, take Priscilla back to the ship. Boys? Come with me."

Cait Sith piped up, "I'll escort them back."

"Are you pulling something?" Cloud asked.

"Ouch," Cait Sith reared back, "I was going to put Mog on auto-pilot so I can concentrate on showing you where to go. If Cait Sith gets spotted here, the whole jig could be up."

Cloud thought about it as Yuffie scooped the child into her arms, "Let's put the cat somewhere inconspicuous. Send Mog to follow Tifa and Yuffie."

Cait Sith barked the order through the megaphone, and Mog turned to hop after the girls. The cat leapt off the stuffed toy and landed at their feet. "This works better, now I can see where we're going. Follow me."

The elevator's blast doors were unharmed, but the body of the guard was tossed against the cliffside that bordered the town. It was a horrid sight – Cloud could only imagine Priscilla having to wander the ruins for days after escaping her bomb shelter. They had inspected the rubble that had been their house, and the rotting cadaver inside the bomb shelter that had been Grampy Webb. Trapped without food or clean water, the old man couldn't take it. Priscilla was a trooper. Cloud wondered what she would be like in the years to come – if Meteor didn't hit and destroy them all, that is.

They piled into the lift and began ascending to Upper Junon. They exited into the corridor – Cloud remembered dressing as an MP months ago. It had felt so strangely familiar, he should have known. He had been giving himself clues the entire time, but his arrogance blinded him to the truth.

He liked who he was now.

He led his friends onto the Grand Path, and they kept scarce. As if Vincent's garish crimson cape, Cid's lance, Barret's enormity and Nanaki himself weren't enough, Cloud Strife's face had been plastered on the news for weeks now, claiming his death and guilt for causing the end of the world. They shyed away from popular areas.

"Cait Sith, where are we going?"

"They're collecting the huge materia from the underwater reactor," Cait Sith said, "When they're done, it says they're scheduled to transport it using the _Gelnika_. That plane should be on the Airport Path."

"Where are they taking it?"

"Trying to access that information now. Please put me on top of Nanaki so my puppeteer can use both of his hands."

With Nanaki's grudging acceptance, Cait Sith landed on his neck and his body fell more or less limp. His head continued to swivel around and he spoke. "I can't access the information, the Airport Path is listed as its final destination."

"It's not going to make it to the Airport Path. How long do we have?"

"It says 0800 hours until they being transportation – that's less than an hour."

"That's lucky," Cid grunted, "We got here just in the nick of time. Take us down, cat."

They kept to the walls as they passed shops, alleys. Dogs seemed to be the only creatures that took notice of them; the people on the Path today were scarce and busy. Cloud looked out to sea, but the view was strange – wrong, somehow.

"It feels like we're missing something," he noted.

Cait Sith swivelled his head around and looked. "The sky seems a little empty."

"Holy fuck!" Cid exclaimed, "The damn cannon's gone!"

The long shaft that had obstructed their view had simply disappeared. "Did Weapon do that?" Cloud asked.

"Not when we were here," Cait Sith answered, "The cannon took him out... Damnit. The information is for Rufus's eyes only."

"So he's planning something with it," Cloud hummed, "There's too many areas of this mission that we didn't plan. We need to be on our toes and prepared for anything. An ambush, a trap, something."

"As far as I can tell, they don't think we know what's going on."

"You've been a really helpful turncoat," Barret huffed.

"I'm doing the best I can," Cait Sith's body jumped to life and he climbed off Nanaki. "Underneath the cannon's support is where the elevator is. Come on."

They moved underneath the support and the path continued out the other side – there was also a road leading towards the sea – out from the path right underneath where the cannon had been. At the end, there was another set of steel doors – large enough to fit a car through. Cait Sith ran towards them.

"Wait up," Cloud called, and his voice echoed in the enclosed space. They bolted after the cat and caught up with him as the elevator doors opened.

Inside the car-sized transport was a business woman leaning against the wall of the elevator, looking rather disinterested. Behind her, two MPs were chatting as the party of five crammed into the elevator.

The MPs took a moment to survey the group, and slowly, they raised their guns. Cloud let Barret do the same. As the elevator continued its descent, their weapons were drawn. The woman in the elevator no longer looked disinterested.

Their ears popped.

"Only one of them has a gun. How about," one MP said to the other, "Whoever survives gets to take her out?"

"All right, you're on. But what if both of us…"

"Don't even talk about that!"

There was an awkward silence. "Do it," Cloud ordered.

The woman screamed as Barret fired, killing both MPs in a single second. Only one bullet from the enemy let loose, and it hit Nanaki in his haunches. He let out a terrifying roar that prompted another scream from the woman, who crawled back onto the corpses.

"Quit yer whining," Cid barked, "We're not gonna kill you, woman!"

Vincent knelt down and healed Nanaki's wound. The bullet wiggled out of the hole as the damaged tissue regenerated. "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine, thank you Vincent."

As the elevator slowed to a stop, they could hear the faint sound of a dog barking. The iron doors hissed open and they ran out into a long corridor running to their left. The dog stood on guard in a doorway, and it bared its teeth at them.

"Don't," Caith Sith said, "That's not the way. There's a tunnel over here."

"Help!" cried the woman in the elevator.

"Let's go now," Cloud grabbed Cait Sith and ran down the corridor, which seemed on the decline.

The doorway at the end of the hallway led to a perpendicular corridor that continued down several intervals of stairs. They ran as the cries for help got fainter. Cloud and Nanaki leapt down the sets of five stairs – Vincent seemed to let go of gravity and float gently (but swiftly) to the bottom. Cid and Barret trundled behind.

Another open doorway leading to another perpendicular shaft – this one was all stairs, dimly lit. "How much longer?" Cloud asked Cait Sith.

"After this, there's a lift, and then we'll be at the ocean floor."

They reached the bottom of the stairs and the doorway was on the right wall. The next corridor was more of a narrow walkway through pipes and fuse boxes. Vincent could duck under the low ceiling, but Barret had to shuffle through the yellow-lit hall sideways, for his broad shoulders would not fit.

Cait Sith proved right – there was a lift after a short walk, and it took them down. Their ears popped again as the lift slowed to a stop.

They were facing a man-sized door that Barret had to squeeze through. Beyond the door though, there was plenty of space.

The tunnel they were in had a curved glass shell that was the only thing between them and the ocean – the tunnel floor was as large as the Grand Path, and it hugged the ocean floor as it curved to the right up ahead.

Cloud dropped Cait Sith and they walked, staring at the schools of fish and other sea creatures swimming outside of the glass.

"Too bad the girls aren't here to see this," Cid noted, "Tifa would have gotten a kick out of it – no pun intended."

It was truly breathtaking. A dolphin swam past them at eye level and seemed to examine them. "These creatures don't seem harmed by the reactor in the water." Cloud observed.

"They've probably learned to stay below the reactor's influence," Vincent walked ahead, "The fish that those in Junon ate came from a poisoned school indeed. The ocean's floor is the last solace left for the denizens of the deep."

As they turned the corner, they saw the reactor, sitting like a black castle on the ocean floor. The water jetting out from the top of the reactor was altered – greener, somehow. Almost like it was letting of smoke like a normal reactor, and it coloured the water above it.

There was no life above the reactor.

The first room in the reactor was round – the walls were made of pipes filled with water. In the centre of the floor was a ocular porthole that was all black at the moment. As Vincent shut the door behind them, a red light turned on at the far side of the room. Cloud walked up to it. It was a red elevator button. He turned to the crew.

"Looks like a lift as well."

"There should be a red button in here," Cait Sith said. Cloud rolled his eyes and pushed the button.

With a hiss, the water in the tubes began to empty. Through the window in the floor, they watched as they began to ascend – water and fish were underneath them.

"Interesting!" Cait Sith examined the tubes, "The release of water made the lift buoyant, lighter than the water that it's inside. We must be in a shaft filled with water – what an engineering feat!"

The red light went out and the door opened.

"If ye're done gawkin'" Barret grumbled, "We got some materia to steal."

When they exited the elevator, they were on a long catwalk raised high above iron floors. To their right, they could see two boats docked at what seemed like a terminal – but there was no exit to be seen. Stranger still were the look of the boats – Cloud had never seen anything like them before. They had no decks, nor visible windows. They looked more like planes than boats.

He thought to comment, but their shoes on the grated walkway were loud enough. He looked to the left where a mechanical arm hung down from the ceiling, trolleying through the huge warehouse. Cait Sith waved his hand forward, prompting them to hurry. They entered a room that was all too familiar.

Before this moment, Cloud wasn't even sure this was the right place – it didn't look like a mako reactor, more like a strange research centre or airplane hangar. But this room was a dead giveaway – it was the opening hall of a mako reactor, the same kind as AVALANCHE had raided in Midgar months ago.

A single guard stood at the far door – no security codes, just a guard. "You're Cloud Strife!" he cried.

"I didn't realize that was a household name," Cloud smirked and Vincent put a neat bullet in the guard's throat.

"If they weren't alerted to our presence before, Cait Sith said, "They sure as hell are now."

"Quickly. Let's get the materia and get the hell out of here."

Through the door they ran onto another zigzagging walkway. Coming up from the floor below was the core of the reactor, suspended above a steaming ocean of mako waste. It was too far to reach from the walkway – it seemed impossible to get to at all. Inside, a red glow emitted. "The huge materia probably formed in there."

The mechanical arm they had seen before slid up to the core of the reactor and reached down inside of it.

"No!" Cait Sith cried.

The red glow went out and the arm retracted, holding a huge red crystal in its pincers.

"Shit!" Barret and Cid said together. The arm continued on its path back towards the strange boats.

"The dock is down these stairs!" Cait Sith ran towards them. Cloud was quick after him.

There were two boats down here – a red and a gray. A bevy of crewmembers dashed around the deck.

The arm lowered the huge materia into the red boat through a hatch at the top. A small crew entered through another hatch like a shelter. Reno of the Turks stood with his back to the party, overseeing the operation. Cait Sith hid between Nanaki's legs as they ran up behind him. Cloud tapped him lightly on the shoulder.

"What is it?" He turned around and his eyes went wide. "Cloud? Holy hell! Where did _you_ come from?"

"Give it to us," Cloud said quickly, "or else. Which is it gonna be?"

Reno smirked, "Unfortunately, I don't have time to deal with you. My priority is the huge materia. Looks like it's secure. Ciao." He bolted up the stairs behind them.

"Cloud!" Cid shouted, "The boat!"

He whirled his head around at the boat, which appeared to be sinking. Lowering into the water. "A boat that travels under the water?" It was a confusing – albeit not an unpractical notion. Vincent leapt and glided onto the red shell of the underwater vessel, trying the hatch.

"It's too late," Vincent said, leaping back onto the dock. The submarine boat disappeared under the water.

"They're taking it to the Airport Path using a submarine?"

"Maybe they're just trying to get away from us," Cait Sith posed. "They could rendez-vous with a ship on the surface."

"There is another boat over there!" Nanaki ran towards a gray submarine farther down. "We can chase them."

"They'll be armed," Cid followed. He had been asked to design such a vessel during the Mako War, but he never did. Apparently, he wasn't irreplaceable.

The rest ran up to the sub. "I'm not sure about this," Cait Sith said, "Why didn't Reno fight us?"

"The other two huge materia are probably on their way to the Airport Path," Cloud surmised, "He's probably on his way to the rendez-vous point."

They climbed atop the submarine and opened the hatch. There was a ladder leading into a large, singular room.

When they all descended, it was an entrance corridor. Consoles lined the walls, and there was a sliding door on either end – one of them read: Bridge.

Cloud ran up to the door and it slid open. A red-clad commander sat in the chair and two blue guards leapt up from their navigation seats, raising their guns. Without thinking, the buster sword flew from its magnetic hold and swung around to point at his enemies. Cloud was in shock at his own quick reflexes. The commander seemed to share Cloud's views about their chances. "No! This is terrible! We don't have much time left. I don't want to die!"

Cloud was stunned. The part of his brain that still screamed _'You're a SOLDIER!'_ berated him for his hesitation. It was the first time he'd wielded the sword since Knowlespole, and he knew it should feel alien to him. After all – it was not his. His arms shouldn't be strong enough to control it so easily. Hadn't he just resolved this? Wasn't he weak, failure Cloud who survived Nibelheim by accident? Hadn't his career as a SOLDIER been a dismal joke? Why, then, did his body persist to tell him that the sword was light in his hands, that his glowing eyes saw farther than most, slowed things down for him.

The commander and his two flunkies quivered at the bad-end of the sword, waiting for Cloud to strike. The guns rattled in their arms. Cloud's reflexes were still ready to block any bullets that came his way. They were still no match for him. Why should that be when he was once the same as them? When he _should_ be the same as them? He hummed, "Drop your weapons."

The guns clattered to the floor. "Barret? Take these lowlifes out of the bridge. Cid, do your thing, man."

Barret ushered the prisoners out of the cockpit, his gun-arm trained on them. "Move it, to the brig, boyee!"

They exited and Cid sat in the navigation seat. "I didn't design this," he admitted, "the controls are funny… Damn-sam, I wish I was back in the air – but I'll manage."

"Good. Vincent can take the other chair," he turned to Vincent, "Do you know how to work these things?"

"Not a clue," Vincent smirked, "but that hasn't stopped us before."

Cloud sat down in the captain's seat and looked ahead, leaning the sword against the arm of the chair. He couldn't see anything. "Do I have to rely on what you're telling me to drive this thing?"

"Looks like it," Cid put a cigarette in his mouth, "Your orders, sir?"

"Take us down and out of this place."

"Piece of cake," Cid pushed a few buttons and the ship lurched. Barret let out a distant cry.

"Watch it!"

Cid pointed at Vincent's console, "See those two circles with the sweeping line like a clock? That's your radar – we send sounds out and the echoes draw us a picture."

"Like a whale," Vincent said, "or a bat."

"Exactly – you just make sure we're not going to hit anything, and I'll take care of firing missiles at the enemy submarine."

"We're going to hit the wall."

"Veer, uh, away from the wall," Cloud ordered clumsily.

"This is a great start," Cid lit up the cigarette and moved some levers.

The ship tilted back a little and Barret moved his gun to stay on the prisoners. Their hands were up. Nanaki walked in beside them. "Take their grenades, Barret. If they move, I'll eat them."

Barret motioned to the commander. "You, what's your name?"

"Commander Dearness."

"'Commander,' that's a nice first name. Get the fuck up."

Barret began frisking Dearness and threw his grenades, nightstick and the dirk in his boot on the floor. "The way this is goin', we'll have a nice little pile to give to the kiddies. Sit down, Dearness. You, get up, what's your name?"

"Bath."

"I'm startin' to think yer messin' with me. Stand up."

As Bath stood up, the second guard leapt up and produced a dagger – plunging it into Barret's side. Quicker than a flash, Nanaki's jaws were around his throat and the beast pulled away, snapping the bones. The guard fell to the floor, dead. Dearness and Bath were dumbfounded, paralyzed. Blood dripped from Nanaki's gnarling teeth.

Barret clutched at his side with his hand, but he was no less tall or intimidating. He growled at the prisoners, "Our pile's jes gettin' bigger, ain't it? That's gonna start stinkin' in a few hours, so it would be best if we got this mission over nice an' quick. Which means, Bath, stand back up. Do it, boy! I ain't got all day!"

"Everything okay back there?" Cloud called back.

"Everything's jes fine! We're all cozy back here!"

"Good," Cloud turned to his navigational officers. "What's the status on the enemy ship?"

"It's in our radar," Vincent announced, "fifty metres, it says."

"Is that close enough to fire missiles?"

"We'll see, won't we?" Cid chuckled and flicked a few switches, "Waiting for the word."

"Are we gaining or losing them?"

"We're gaining," Vincent said.

Cloud waited a moment. "All right. Fire."

"Yessir," Cid chuckled and pounded his fist on a button. They could hear the sound of torpedoes ejecting from their vessel, flying through the water and fading lower than the roar of the engine.

"Did we hit?"

"Still travelling," Vincent watched the blips chase the enemy submarine. "… they missed."

"Damn. Let's get a little closer, then. Get Barret to reload the missiles."

"I'm picking up a large figure on the radar coming from the right."

Cid stood up. "What? Lemme see." He stood hunched over Vincent's shoulder, staring at his radar. "Oh no."

"What is it?"

"Looks like Weapon, Cloud. A pretty big one I'd say."

"Which one is it?"

"Too big to be Diamond or Ultima. Can't tell its colour from here. It's probably sensed the mako engines in these subs."

"Is it after us or Shinra."

"Does it matter? It got here in a damn hurry, which means we can't outrun it."

"Can we escape this sub?"

"I'm on it." Cid ran to the back. "Barret! Throw some more torpedoes in these holes!"

"Can we defeat it?" Cloud asked hopelessly.

"It seems to be moving slowly," Vincent hummed, "Perhaps it was just in the right place at the right time. Outrunning it might be a possibility."

"How are we doing with the enemy submarine?"

"It has increased its speed and is at sixty metres."

Cid ran back in, "You can increase your speed?!" He ran to his console, "Give me a fucking second." He threw a lever forward and the ship let out a moan as it began to speed up.

"That's a relief," Cloud said, "Any news on Weapon?"

"It's matching our speed, but not gaining."

"Good. Can you increase speed?"

"Goddamnit, Cloud, I'm still figuring these damn controls out. And if you want to know, the only way to escape this thing is the hatch above us, so you'd better be able to hold your damn breath."

"Shinra submarine is at forty metres."

"Fire."

Cid punched the button. "…Miss," said Vincent. "They're returning torpedoes."

"Returning what?"

"Underwater missiles. They just fired at us."

"From behind them?" Cid cried.

"Evasive manoeuvres!" Cloud shouted.

The ship dived deep and Cloud held to the arms of his chair to keep from falling to the floor. The torpedoes glided past them; they heard it.

"That was close," Cloud said, "Bring us back up before Weapon gets us."

"Shinra submarine is at thirty-five metres."

"Fire."

"How many damn torpedoes do we have?" Cid punched the button.

"Hit," Vincent said.

"Status," Cloud stood up.

"It's keeping its speed, but it's descending."

"Fire again."

"Are those damn torpedoes loaded?" Cid shouted.

"I'm doin' the best I can!" Barret loaded the torpedoes into the chutes.

"The enemy submarine is on a collision course with a land mass," Vincent said, "It is not changing course."

"We got it, then," Cloud sighed, "Bring us up to the surface – we can get the Huge Materia later, but I don't want to stay down here any longer with Weapon while we've got a job to finish."

The vessel lurched again, and they relaxed.

Dearness and Bath sat quietly as Cloud stepped through the oval door to face them. They had taken their helmets and masks off, and Dearness had now gotten over the initial shock of finding out his Lieutenant was dark of skin after years of service together. Not a few months ago, he had mistaken their now-captor for him.

"Cloud Strife," Dearness said, "You know, the world thinks you're dead."

"You'd be surprised how many dead people are still hanging around," Cloud shook his head, "Have we met before?"

"Junon," Dearness said, "You infiltrated the welcoming parade."

Cid laughed, "Ain't you a master of disguise."

"Sorry for forgetting," Cloud smirked, "My memory isn't what it used to be. I'm gonna be frank with you. The world is going to end in a matter of weeks – a month at the latest. I didn't summon Meteor, but I had a hand in it, so did President Shinra, and his old man before him. I'm not going to keep you prisoner, and as soon as we reach land I doubt we'll meet again. I'm going to let you in on a few secrets, though. You're on the wrong side."

The submarine floated towards the surface for an hour as Cloud told the prisoners everything he knew. What Weapon was, what the Cetra were, the Lifestream-Eater and the Jenova Project and Sephiroth. They listened, and as his story went on, they became more attentive.

They broke to the surface and Vincent called back that they were two hours from the shore. Dearness and Bath spent two hours asking AVALANCHE questions. Some were demands for explanation – Bath's cousin had lived in Sector 7, Dearness used to frequent The Goblin Bar when he lived in Midgar and wanted to know why they had destroyed it. Cloud was honest in his answers, taking the blame when it was his to take, explaining calmly and resolutely his perspective. Cid noticed a huge change in the way Cloud carried himself – there was no glimmer of doubt around him now, no confusion about his past bogging him down, forcing him to puff himself up. He seemed more human than ever before.

They reached the shore outside of Junon.

"What are we supposed to do with all this information?" Dearness asked.

"Here's what I think you should do. You should take this submarine and get yourself two women and a few years of rations. Then, you should hide underneath the water. If Meteor hits, the skies will burn and the land will be wasted. Everyone and everything will die. Underwater is the safest place – away from earthquakes and tsunamis and the burning air. If the unthinkable happens – when it happens – I want to make sure that there are still humans, humans who can sow new fields and breed proper animals. People who know the truth – so that this never happens again."

"And what of this… Lifestream Eater? Isn't Sephiroth going to absorb all the energy and become a God?"

"If he does, well, you know how to use a gun."

They were lifting the body of the dead prisoner out of the hatch when Cloud paused. "Barret, give me your PHS."

"Why?"

"Because I'm the leader of this party and when I say do something you do it."

"That's more like it," Barret tossed him the black brick. Cloud threw it at Dearness.

"If you have any more questions – that is linked to our channel. I don't expect to hear from you, but I hope Shinra doesn't either. See ya."


	126. Book 5: Countdown

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 19**

**Countdown**

Reno arrived at the Junon airport path, and he adjusted his pony-tail as he made his way to Rude. His dark-skinned counterpart stood over a crate that was being hammered closed by three squadlings.

"Yo," Reno said. Rude turned around and surveyed Reno, who smiled sheepishly. "The last huge materia… well, Cloud showed up."

"He's not dead, then," Rude hummed. "I'll inform Rufus."

"Great. I don't know if they have it – do you think it'd be worth trying to get it before the op?"

"Operation: Starlight will go through as planned," Rufus approached them. "We only require two huge materia. AVALANCHE won't be able to use the huge materia without Scarlet's machine. Let them have the others. We have the one from Corel?"

"And the one from Nibelheim makes a set. Two by two, green and blue."

"It will work. Don't worry about the two that we've lost, this should be more than enough to take out Meteor."

"Hey, has anyone thought to, like, tell AVALANCHE what we're doing?"

Rufus and Rude looked at Reno incredulously.

"I'm serious. They've been on about saving the Planet since they started bombing reactors. Isn't this what Operation: Starlight is all about? Saving the Planet?"

"Their distrust of Shinra Inc. would blind them to our cause," Rufus said plainly.

"Whose fault is that, I wonder?"

"Hey!" Rufus ordered, and the smirk on Reno's face was stripped immediately. "Reno, you're off this mission. You're a Turk. Act like it. Don't forget who you work for."

"Yes, sir."

"Reno has a point," Rude said, and Rufus turned to him surprised. "If we appeal to Cid, he might aid us."

"Rude, forget it," Reno sighed. "The only thing you have to do is prevent them from—"

There was a great whirring sound, and coming up from below the airport path was the _Highwind_. It rose up until Rufus, Reno and Rude could see into the bridge, where Cloud stood watching them. It stopped its ascent and hovered in place.

"Say a tonberry's name…" Reno didn't finish the old saying, the point came across. He waved up at them. "Hey guys!"

The MPs around them had their guns aimed at the glass. "Should we fire?"

"Hold fire," Rufus said, "the _Highwind_ doesn't have weaponry. What do they think this is going to accomplish? Are they going to jump down here and try to take it?"

"That would be folly," Rude stated.

"Well, have fun with these cats," Reno turned and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Rufus asked.

"To the bar. I'm off duty."

"Your orders?" Rude asked.

Rufus stammered. "Take the _Gelnika_ and escort the cargo plane to its destination. If the _Highwind_ tries to intercept, destroy it."

Rude nodded, walking towards the aerial might.

* * *

From the bridge of the _Highwind_, they observed that the _Gelnika_ was a ship far smaller than their cruise vessel, but it was clearly armed with missile bays, mounted guns and a bomb-hatch on its armoured undercarriage. The main body of the ship looked like a flat-bottomed cone with the top cleaved off. The wings (folded up above the plane to create a triangle shape), tail and four propeller engines all rested atop the main body – and everything was camouflaged to look like Wutaian jungle colours.

The propellers started up and the wings began to unfold underneath them until flat. They watched Rude walk underneath the wings and through the wing doors – which slammed shut behind him. The wheels underneath the flat bottom aligned it with the runway.

The _Highwind_ hovered at the end of the runway.

"Now that we're here," Cid's eyes widened, "I'm not sure this was such a good idea."

"We're getting hailed," Bleer announced. Cid picked up a radio receiver connected to the helm.

"This is Captain Highwind. Who the hell is it?"

Rufus' voice crackled through, "The _Highwind_ will be yours if you let us through."

Cid laughed, "I think the _Highwind_'s mine no matter what. You're going to have to give me something better than that."

"I'm not sure I made it clear," Rufus said, and then a muffled, "fire a warning shot."

One of the _Gelnika_'s mounted guns fired down the runway and the bullets came through the glass, cracking it. The bullet hit one of the engineers in the shoulder and he fell behind Cid. Cid grabbed the radio, "What the hell kind of warning shot was that?!"

"Move or be destroyed."

Cid nodded to Bleer, who turned the great wooden wheel to starboard. The _Highwind_ careened out of the way as the _Gelnika_ sped down the runway. The military airship reached the correct speed just as it drove off of the runway into the open air. Behind it was a smaller cargo vessel.

"The huge materia is probably on that second ship," Cloud said.

"It's gonna be hard to smash it, though, with that damn powerhouse of an airship protecting it. Let's try just following them for now."

The _Highwind_ was much faster than either of the enemy ships, and soon it was flying in form with them. The _Gelnika_ – an incredibly manoeuvrable ship – made no moves to attack. The three ships made their way slowly across the ocean, allowing the sun to set ahead of them.

* * *

Cloud sat in his room a while later, waiting for any word from Cid. He was looking at the huge materia – looking at the buster sword that rested against it. He remembered what Sephiroth said about swords at Tooth Rock, when the three of them were called to aid the seventieth garrison (in truth, the two SOLDIERs were called and Cloud was their escort). The hired guns enlisted by the locals were quick, and Cloud had been grazed by a bullet. As Zack leaned down to help him, a mercenary stabbed his side and knocked his sword from his hands.

Cloud now remembered vividly Zack's hands diving for the gun that Cloud still clutched – how he surrendered his weapon to the SOLDIER readily. He remembers the glint of the masamune cutting off the barrel of the gun. How Sephiroth standing above them, blocking the sunlight, looked like a dark god.

"Guns are for lesser creatures," he said unsympathetically, "a man wields a sword. If a SOLDIER does not have the instinct and dexterity to dodge bullets – he does not deserve to live. Get up, SOLDIER. Fight with some dignity."

Zack had flown across the mountainside like an acrobat, and Cloud watched through his mask how the bullets barely missed him as he leapt through the air, landing hands-first on the buster sword and flipping right-side-up to make a thorough kill.

And now his sword lay in Cloud's quarters, resting against a huge crystal of Spirit Energy. _'This room is full of trophies I did not earn,'_ he thought.

He had left the door open and there was movement there. His eyes darted quickly to the open doorway. The small, tanned girl was wrapped in a blanket. "Priscilla," he said.

"It's so cold here," she said.

"We're up in the sky – there's more wind here." He wasn't sure people in the Junon slums knew what wind was. "How are you feeling?"

"Hungry."

"There's a kitchen upstairs," he said, "ask the cooks to make you something nice, and they'll show you to the big dining hall where you can eat."

"Are… you hungry?"

"No."

He didn't mean for the answer to be so curt, but he was surprised nonetheless by her offense to it. She stammered out an "Oh," and left in a hurry. How was he supposed to know how to act around kids? Marlene never liked him. Priscilla seemed to crush on him as children do their heroes, but Cloud had never thought of himself as a hero – even after he had saved her life. Even when Tifa had given him that look – the look she rarely gave anyone. The look of pride, he guessed. _'Saving a life is a heroic thing to do, so why do I feel that I don't deserve that kind of status?'_

He looked at the buster sword again, and thought of himself impaling it through Sephiroth's tasset. He thought of using the sword to cut Jessie's leg free when she was stuck in the reactor. He remembered killing Corneo's lackey, Scotch to save Aeris from sexual assault. Wielding the sword on the resistance side at his second Fort Condor battle – fighting Jenova, and even a dragon. He looked at the living testament to Zack's memory, something that could help him hold on – help him continue to fight.

'_I didn't earn you,'_ he thought at the sword, _'but I'll do the best I can to fight with some dignity.'

* * *

_It occurred to Cid a few times to try hailing the _Gelnika_ – to question why they were allowing AVALANCHE to follow them. Only an idiot would assume that the huge materia would be safe once the ships landed. They flew straight west – holding course. Cid expected them to head to Costa del Sol and its landing strip there. Instead, they flew over the Topaz River as the morning sun came from in behind them. Finally, they began to turn north – away from the river and over the Corel plains. As Cloud arrived back on the bridge, he and Cid walked to the nose of the ship, looking out through the cracked glass. Cid scanned the plains – There were plenty of good landing spots – _Gelnika_ was designed for all-terrain landing (he should know). But they weren't landing.

They flew over a travelling family of enormous, egg-shaped grangalan, the children travelling like hide-a-way dolls inside their mother's round mouth.

"Vicious creatures, grangalan," Cloud commented, patting Cid on the shoulder, "Zack told me once that even the smallest child can kill a human. Still, I always found it interesting how if you kill the mother, all the children drop down dead. I saw him do it once – they have hide like tree bark and teeth like razors. The parents tote around the kids like a truck full of infantry, and they hop out. If any of _them_ have kids, they hide in _their_ mouths. My gun couldn't even take out one, but Sephiroth ordered Zack to kill the biggest one – after he did, the rest just fell to the ground. Weird, huh?"

"Their connection with their mother goes beyond perception," Vincent looked at the creatures below them, "They are linked to their very core – call it psychic if you must. In humans, it is more painful to lose one's child than mother – it is the unnatural way of things. With grangalan, it is the opposite."

Cloud remembered the seizing of his heart when he saw his mother's body – a memory that Jenova let him keep, damn her. He didn't find it difficult to relate to the monsters. They were flying over mountains now.

"When I was still Vincent of the Turks, grangalan were harmless. They were even seen by some as good luck. Another display of Shinra's footprint on the world."

"Well, let's hope they still have some luck left in 'em," Cid smiled grimly, and walked back to the helm. Cloud surveyed Vincent. Most of the time, they took Vincent at face value – a tall, intelligent man with hideous side effects of experiments. He talked about his past very little, and to hear him reference it was worth noting – even if he didn't actually tell them anything about himself. Yuffie came up to the window with Cait Sith resting in her arms.

"There's a saying we have in Wutai: 'the fish rots from the head.' It meant a whole bunch of things to my dad; he would sit and meditate on it for hours a day. To me, it just goes to show that if you kill the overlord, the rest will die. What I mean is that those babies aren't really their own people, since they still rely on their parents for life – and they always will, doesn't matter how many children they have. They're just like the tail of a fish, still controlled by the brain. It's sad."

"But where did they come from?" Nanaki asked, "Surely there must be a great grandfather grangalan, somewhere, that has never died – or else the creatures would be extinct."

"You mean like Jenova?" Tifa asked. She had seemed to drift in and out of the conversation, on her own tangential train of thought. "Jenova cells act as their own creature, right? And you can't kill them, they just return to the source to be spread out again."

"Jenova can't be killed," Cloud shook his head, "Don't you remember the encounter on the cargo boat all those months ago? She appeared in the form of Sephiroth, and grew to a huge monster."

"Yeah," Barret chimed in, "But when we severed them tentacles, they jes' disappeared. It was all an illusion."

"Maybe," Cloud said, "Or maybe Jenova is more than what you can see. She has the ability to absorb the Lifestream – that doesn't sound like a creature you can kill." He turned to Vincent. "What do you think?"

"I know little of Jenova's true nature," Vincent said.

"But you were there, during the Jenova Project."

"That means little," Vincent said, "The video tapes in Professor Gast's northern hideout provided most of my knowledge of Jenova's anatomy, as they did yours as well. As far as I know the stories, the Cetra sealed Jenova but didn't kill her. Perhaps because it is impossible for Jenova to be killed but it is more likely that the Cetra had an inability to kill anything, due to their gentle nature."

A quick and painful memory of Aeris impaling an MP with her staff in the Midgar church. Vincent continued.

"Perhaps the calamity knew this about the Cetra – that may be why parasites like Jenova are allowed to exist in this universe…" he began to laugh – it was more of a thoughtful hum, but it was merry nonetheless.

"What?"

"As Yuffie said, 'the fish rots from the head.' I recall seeing Jenova's head in the northern crater, in the crystal with Sephiroth's body. It did not appear to be rotting."

"So Jenova isn't a fish," Yuffie said.

"I mean to say that Jenova's head – while severed – is still intact, and in my long acquaintance with her, has always been intact. Perhaps she ordered Sephiroth to protect her head upon her awakening."

"Can we shu'up about this please?" Barret huffed, "I get what you're sayin', but it's too damn late for that now. Sure, we could've killed Sephiroth – or Jenova, or both or whoever – when we were in Knowlespole, but we didn't and we gotta live with the consequences."

"Barret's right," Cloud said, although his voice was more calm and resolute than the giant's. "I think we've talked this to death."

They were flying over North Corel now, and they all had a chance to look down at the ruins of the town – the train lay on its side and the survivors weaved in and out between the tipped cars, some moving coal in great wheelbarrows.

"Where the hell are they taking us?" Barret asked, "There's nothing north of here but mountains and valleys."

"You're wrong," Cid face was curled in fierce determination. He had been growing more and more angered as they continued north. "They're going to Rocket."

* * *

"Get the ladder down first, goddamn you! Y'all can tie the ship down while we're away!"

A crewman dropped the furled ladder over the rail of the _Highwind_'s passenger deck, and it rolled out until it touched the yellowing grass. Cid was over the rail before the ladder had completely unfurled. He shimmied down the ladder at breakneck speed. Cloud and Tifa were right behind him.

"Vincent and Barret," Cloud ordered. "Stay with the ship – make sure no one tries to take it."

"You got it."

"Nanaki," he called to the beast, who had leapt from the deck onto the soil. "Go on ahead and let us know their numbers."

"Right away, Cloud!" Nanaki turned and ran full sprint towards the town half a kilometre away. He was out of sight within seconds.

"Everyone else – to me." They began to run towards the town. "If there are many forces, we'll split up into two groups. Yuffie, you and Nanaki could do the work of the three of us, right?"

"Cloud, by myself I could do the work of the three of you."

"Whatever. Tifa and Cid, don't lose sight of me."

Tifa nodded, her eyes full of determination.

"What about me?" Cait Sith asked, still cradled in Yuffie's arms.

"All you have to do is not get caught. We need your info and I'm sure you don't want to be executed for treachery. Once we reach the town, take a PHS and get as high as you can. You know what to do after that."

"Right-o."

They raced across the field – the grass was distinctly less colourful than it had been their last journey here. It looked like parched prairie grass, but it was still wet from rainfall. The damage to the Planet was becoming much less gradual.

Nanaki was sprinting back so quickly he passed right by them. A few seconds later he was trotting alongside. "I gave a rough count of twenty or so MPs in the town, there are men in jumpsuits crawling all over the rocket."

"Goddammit, what the hell do they think they're gonna do to my rocket!?"

"I also saw Rude of the Turks, but not Reno."

"It's possible he's setting up a trap for us," Cloud warned.

Cid grunted in disagreement. "No, I saw Reno at the airstrip in Junon – he didn't get into the _Gelnika_. They're expecting us, but it ain't no trap. Town's not big enough."

They were nearly there. "All right," Cloud said, "Cid, Tifa, walk into the town proper with me – they'll be expecting us. Before we can walk right into an ambush, I want Yuffie and Nanaki to thin their forces a little from behind them."

The second team nodded and splintered off from the main group. The first group walked past the inn in the main dirt road leading in to town. The elderly gentleman in his rocking chair was looking straight at the rocket. Cid couldn't help but gaze at it as well.

It was as Nanaki had described it – the great green rocket rested against the east gantry as it had for over a decade, but there were crewmen running an and out of it as steam hissed from its exhaust ports. Cid couldn't believe his eyes.

"Cloud, screw your strategy. I'm gonna kick those fucking Shinra out of my rocket."

As if on cue, there was a garbled cry from behind one of the houses. Nanaki had made his first kill. The sound of gunfire seemed to inspire the other hiding enemies to rush out from behind corners.

"Kill the terrorists!" a captain in red shouted. The blue uniforms rushed them.

Cloud grabbed the familiar handle of the buster sword – heard the tiny _clink_ of its release from the magnetic hold, felt the weight on his back disappear. He looked through mako-stained eyes, watched the scene like a SOLDIER. He could see the tiny movement of an index finger that said the MP in front of him was about to pull the trigger. He swung the blade broadly up to his chest and saw the sparks trail away as crushed bullets fell to the ground at his feet. He rushed forward, letting go of his hesitation, embracing that strange confidence he had pretended to have since his arrival in Midgar. As the first attacker went down under the blade, it turned into a real confidence.

Tifa's fireballs were soon making the town square a singed, bloody battlefield. Cid's spear swinging indiscriminately severed the legs of all the MPs around him, and they made their way through the onslaught.

At numerous points, the PHS at Cid's belt shouted out warnings from Cait Sith, but they were fairly moot when the enemies had them surrounded. A bullet grazed Tifa's back and she fell quickly, but Yuffie leapt in before the enemy could finish her off. Cloud noticed that Yuffie stabbed the MP in the shoulder with her shuriken, and then knocked him out with his own gun.

When she saw him watching her, she pulled her shuriken out of his shoulder and said, "Sometimes it's more fun just to knock 'em out."

Cloud wished he could feel the same, but as the soldiers continued to rush him, he remembered what it was like to put his life on the line for Shinra. Misguided though they may be, these were no innocents. He cut through them as they came for him.

Tifa was back on her feet and they continued towards the rocket.

There were more MPs than they had counted before. Cloud took a quick note of this as they ran closer to the building's edges. Tifa and Yuffie's magic was keeping the MPs from firing - keeping the circle wide. They were dropping like flies around them. Cloud heard an especially loud rumble and noticed that Tifa had conjured an enormous fireball - larger than he had seen her produce (although not as large as her attack on Ultima Weapon). She seemed to control it like a trail of string, flowing her arm in a 'thither' motion. The fireball circled around the group and crashed into two MPs, who were knocked back, blackened.

Cloud didn't notice the door opening inwards beside him. He didn't notice the MP standing in the doorway with his gun cocked. His keen ears picked up the sound of the MPs hand leaving the door handle, the small clicking sound of his glove grabbing the semi-automatic. _'Down!'_ his instincts told him, but even now he knew that he was too late. His mind was in combat mode - everything seemed slower, his attention keenly tuned in to every sound. He heard the creaking of the trigger behind him. He felt his knees acting on their own, releasing and hurtling him towards the ground. He felt the bullet from another gunner fly past his ear. He felt a magic tug from off to his left.

The magic tug was coming from Yuffie.

There was a hellish scream from behind him as the gun went off. There was a mixture of sounds happening behind him, the MPs gargled scream and a sizzling noise that Cloud couldn't place. He felt a pain in the top of his head. He had been grazed, but not hit. As he finished his fall onto the dirt, as it stung the scratches in his face, he felt the warm oozing of blood coming out of his scalp, but he hadn't heard - hadn't felt - his skull crack. Hadn't experienced his brain blowing into mush. He was still very alive, and very much aware.

With deft speed, he swivelled his head around to look at the MP in the doorway. Blood splayed from the tiny cut in his scalp and was caught in his yellow hair.

The MP didn't have a head. At the neck, his flesh seemed to have been melted off, as if dipped in some horrible acid. The gun was pointed up in his stiff arms. After a moment, the arms went limp and the body of the MP collapsed. Yuffie walked up and looked down at her kill. Cloud noted her eyes. She was calculating something. _'She saved my life,' _was what came to him after the immediate assessment. Next came the thought, _'Okay, what's next?'_

"Yuffie, where's Nanaki?" Cloud asked.

"I suppose you mean 'Thank You?'" she smirked down at him. He shot a bemused glance up at her, wiping the blood off of his neck absent-mindedly. Yuffie pointed towards a section of the crowd that wasn't paying attention to them at all. They seemed occupied with something they were surrounding. "He's taking care of himself."

"No excuses, stay together!"

Yuffie voiced her protest, "You owe me one!" but jumped over and helped her partner with his crowd.

They were underneath the shadow of the rocket – at the door to Cid's house. Cid opened the door and backed inside.

"Cid, what the hell are we doing in here?" Cloud asked as he backed inside, slamming the door shut. There were windows to shoot through, and no room to use a sword freely.

"We can get to the rocket through the backdoor. C'mon!"

Cid sprinted through the hallway to the back door, stopping for a moment by a desk in the hallway. He picked up something small that looked like a book before opening the back door and running out.

The windows shattered and bullet holes began to trail along the walls of Cid's kitchen, shattering the tea kettle. Cloud ducked to avoid the bullets and ran towards the back door hunched over, the sword still in his hand. The front door came down in splinters as he exited through the back door.

He was in a white fenced area. There was a trail-mark in the yellow grass – made by the propellers of the _Tiny Bronco_ on its less-than-graceful final takeoff. Cloud ran past it and hopped over the fence to follow Tifa and Cid, who were well on their way to the rocket.

Rude stood at the bottom of the long ladder, and when they approached he raised his eyebrows. Not in surprise, but more of amused interest. As if he hadn't expected them to reach this far. As if he hadn't expected them to try at all.

"We will eliminate any who get in Shinra's way," Rude said, "Are you sure you want to fight me?"

"We've done this before," Cloud smirked, "And Reno was with you. Are you sure you want to go through that kind of humiliation again?"

Rude cracked his knuckles, "You seem to be under the impression that our strength comes from numbers. You are wrong."

The red materia at Rude's belt began to glow.

"Oh shit!" Cid cried.

Rude's body seemed to fade from existence – his dark suit and all. They were left alone on the ladder with the wind. They looked around to see what Rude had summoned.

Could they fight a summon creature? Not in Cloud's experience, he remembered how Yuffie's Leviathan calling had decimated the army inside the Temple of the Ancients, and he had heard the same spell had taken twice that number in Tooth Rock. The sky began to darken. Yuffie approached them. "What's happening?" she asked.

Cloud thought of berating her for leaving Nanaki again, but he figured there were bigger problems at hand. He pointed at the sky. It appeared as though a cyclone was forming where the morning had once been clear. It was now dark as night, and through the spinning clouds came a black winged figure plummeting towards the earth.

"Rude has summoned a dragon."

"No," Yuffie said, "I'd know him anywhere. In the stories, there was a king of dragons, more ruthless and powerful than the rest. That's Bahamut up there."

Whether it was actually the dragon king Bahamut or a manifestation of faith, Cloud couldn't care at the moment. What he cared about was the dragon coming close enough to be hit.

"Get away from the rocket!" Cid shouted, and began to run towards the open field, "If it breathes fire, this whole place will explode!"

As the dragon swooped towards the rocket, they backed away from it. Bahamut landed on the rocket, and the weight of the dragon king shook the vessel in its locked position. It roared towards the sky and they all took a good look at him.

The armour-like scales on Bahamut's body were blacker than night, the only light areas were tinges of bronze in the scales around his great muscled (vaguely human) chest and abdomen. Like his chest, his arms and legs were also humanoid, but each of his fingers and toes ended with a long silver claw that curled at the tips. There was no genitalia to speak of, rather the torso continued past the legs and into a long, black tail that swayed behind him as he clutched to the rocket. Extending from his shoulder blades were two enormous, bat-like wings that each doubled the size of the dragon. His beaked, angular head rested atop a long craning neck that could swerve to scratch his back if he needed to. Right now, he was only interested in staring at the party through yellow, glowing eyes, beak open and horns crowning his scaly head.

When he decided that he'd had enough looking, the great leathery wings flapped once and the dragon moved through the air and began towards them.

"Guard!" Yuffie shouted and the yellow materia was illuminated.

As the wings flapped slowly to keep the dragon hovering above them, something very bright began to appear just outside of the black dragon's mouth. Yuffie's spell obstructed their view for a second as a magical barrier formed around each of them. It was opaque as a wall in one moment and in the next it appeared not to be there at all. Cloud, however, felt a little safer.

They stood – partly in awe, and partly because they did not want to delay the inevitable (summon creatures never missed) – underneath the king of dragons as the ball of light continued to grow between his open maws.

Bahamut craned his neck back into an uncomfortable-looking 's' shape and his head shook with the energy being gathered in his mouth. Finally, he threw his head forward and the ball of energy blasted out of his head and towards his targets.

It didn't take long for the soaring energy blast to hit them. There was a moment before it hit Cloud where it paused. Cloud was almost convinced that Yuffie's feeble magic barrier would render him completely invulnerable. As he felt himself fly through the air, surrounded by the most incredible pain, he knew that was not the case.

Not to say that the spell didn't help. When he landed, he landed on a small, smoking crater where the land used to be. He was bruised, bloodied and out of breath, but he was alive. He might have to thank Yuffie for that later.

When he looked up at the sky, Bahamut was gone and the skies were clearing again. Rude appeared at the top of the crater, looking down at them. The others were down there too, coughing and bleeding. Yuffie was unconscious.

Cloud realized what Rude had meant by 'strength in numbers.' Without Reno's influence here with him, Rude seemed to be more comfortable with the idea of ruthlessness.

"A summon creature," Cloud coughed, "On three humans. You're real brave, you are."

"Honour is not necessary to be a Turk," Rude's arms relaxed as the glow in his red stone died away. "We need only be successful."

Cloud began to kneel up but the heel of Rude's boot sent his head careening back. He fell to his back on the singed dirt. Rude kicked him again and sent him rolling, breathing in the dust and blood.

He coughed and the dirt stung his eyes. His hair was matted down from sweat and blood. Where was his sword? Rude walked slowly towards him, making sure his gloves were tightly over his hands. A swift kick in the face. Cloud rolled onto his back. Tifa struggled to get her face out of the dirt, and clenched a fist as the materia inside her glove began to glow.

Fire rose from the ground and engulfed Rude. Tifa was weak, and the flames left as quickly as they had came. Rude was shocked, but he magically cured himself as he put a foot on Cloud's throat.

His air was cut off and he found himself choking on Rude's heel. He lifted his hands, but couldn't find the strength. As his vision began to fade, he saw some movement behind Rude. At first, it only served to obliterate his hope, as it appeared to be the army they had lost earlier. Something was between them and Rude, though.

Something bright red.

Rude was tossed off of Cloud with an incredible force. As Nanaki pounced him, his heel pressed down hard and Cloud coughed up some blood. Bullets began to scatter around the crater. Cloud rolled to his hands and knees to dodge a bullet. He saw bullets tear into Yuffie and Cid. Sticking out of the ground behind Rude was the buster sword.

'_Get up, SOLDIER. Fight with some dignity.'_

Flipping to his feet, he ran through the damaged earth. Instinct told him to 'STOP!' and he fell to the ground as bullets cut a line through the air where he would have been. The dirt exploded around him in near-misses. He rolled in front of Yuffie. Still breathing. Rude had punched Nanaki clear out and was coming back for Cloud. A bullet hit his leg, but Cloud used the pain to vault himself from lying down to rushing through the air, landing on the good leg before the sword. Pulling it out of the ground, he brought it through the air and turned to bring it down to Rude.

Dirt and yellow patches of grass exploded in the air and the buster sword came up over him towards Rude. The Turk's sunglasses were half-smashed and Cloud saw his brown eye see the sword, understand it and become afraid.

The sword arced above Cloud's head.

It was sometimes said to Cloud that when he died, his life would flash before his eyes. As the sword began towards the top of Rude's bald head, Cloud got flashes of their history. What had Ramuh said, when the storm god had refused to kill them? Crimes against humanity aren't crimes against the Planet. It was how AVALANCHE lived.

He thought of Yuffie, refusing to kill even an MP. He thought of her tied upside-down as Rude came in and saved her. He saw the way the Turks had nodded at AVALANCHE. But he also saw Rude's dangerous acts today. He saw Sephiroth's act of mercy in the rainy Nibelheim as the mutant was swallowed by the earth. He saw Reno's face should he learn of Rude's death.

The sword came down and veered around Rude's head, stopping just above his shoulder. Rude was fast, but Cloud was incredibly so. Rude was still in shock that he had been beaten, and was only beginning to realize that he had been spared when Cloud knocked the sword to the side and broadsided Rude in the head. The Turk fell into the crater, clean out.

'_I'm not a SOLDIER,'_ Cloud thought, _'but I'll try my best… to be a hero.'_

His group was still unconscious, some gravely injured. He limped towards them, placing the sword in its proper place on his back.

One of the MPs surrounding the crater shouted, "Don't move!"

Cloud still had his mind about him, and gathered the energy of his lightning materia. Without a word or even a glance, he lifted a single arm out and ten bolts of lightning fired from his fingers, killing all the enemy troops. He didn't even stop limping towards Yuffie.

'_No one's perfect.'_

When he got to her, he found the potion attached to her khaki shorts and poured it into her mouth. Some of the bullets popped out of their holes as they healed, and she stirred awake.

"We're even," he said. "Help me revive the others."

* * *

They awoke Cid last, because they knew he would immediately go for the rocket. As fast as he could make it, he climbed the long ladder towards the door.

"Make sure there aren't any troops left in the town," Cloud ordered the second group, but tossed Rude's Bahamut materia to Yuffie, who turned away smiling.

Steam hissed from an old relic coming alive. There was commotion at the top. It was very different from when they had last encountered it. When they reached the platform (and its familiar homemade extension leading out to rocket's new position) there were men in navy blue jumpsuits running fore and aft and Cid couldn't believe his eyes.

He knew these men. They had been here years ago. He ran inside the rocket, then through the left door to the control room.

The old mechanics of the YA-79 project scurried about the control room, adjusting dials, fixing things. Most of them were so busy they didn't even notice Cid. "Hey!" cried the Captain, "What the hell are you guys doing here?!"

They all stopped what they were doing and turned to face him. Cid expected silence in the control room, but the machinery was making so much noise, noise Cid thought he would never hear again.

"Hey! You're back!" one of the mechanics cried. "Just when something's going on, the Captain comes back!"

"Here here and welcome!" another cried.

"Enough of that shit," Cid barked, "What the hell are you doing with my rocket?"

"Operation: Starlight."

"And what the hell is that?"

A mechanic stepped forward. His hair was greying as well, but he smiled. "Captain, we're going to launch this rocket."

The sound of that sentence stung in his eyes. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"We've loaded a materia bomb onto Shinra No. 26. This rocket is now an interplanetary missile. According to plan, we're going to launch it in its diagonal state, which should set it on a crash course with Meteor. Can you believe it? This rocket is going to blow up Meteor. Our rocket it going to save the Planet!"

Cloud stepped forward. "Wait a minute!"

Cid turned sharply, "Shut _up_! Just shut the hell up!" Cloud was silenced. Cid returned to the head mechanic. "How's the rocket?"

"It's pretty much okay. It's been well taken care of these long years. But…"

"If I wanted butts, I'd light a cigarette. What's up?"

"We planned to run it into Meteor on auto-pilot, but the most important device is broken."

"Broken? How's the repair going?"

"Shera's doin' it…"

Cid smirked and actually let out a (still-angry) chuckle. "Oh great. What a bunch of wizards you guys are. She's gonna take a hundred years!"

He laughed again, this time with less contempt. It ended with a sigh. "I'll take over from here, so don't you worry about the auto-pilot." He took a quick survey of everything in the control room. "There's nothing left to do here, so those of you not helping Shera out are relieved. Thanks for your work."

Most of the men saluted Cid before running off the bridge. Cloud and Tifa stayed on with him.

"Hey, Cid! What are you doing?" Cloud asked. When Cid turned to him, Cloud made his case. "There are generations of knowledge and wisdom inside of the materia. We're going to borrow their powers and save the Planet from Sephiroth. There's no way we can lose the huge materia. You understand that, right?"

Cid shook his head. "Yeah, I understand. I understand that materia is precious, and I also understand what you're thinking. But listen, I don't give a rat's ass whether its science or magical power. No, wait… I guess if I had to choose, I would put my money on the power of science. Humans who only used to be able to roam around on the ground can fly now. And finally, we're about to go into outer space. Science is a power created and developed by humans. If the materia is the legacy of the Ancients, then technology is our legacy. I guess we come to the fork in the road, Cloud. I don't know what you think you can do with the huge materia, but if technology that put us in the air is the same behind this operation, then I have to believe it will work. And I don't want to regret not having done something later."

Cloud reached towards him, "But Cid…"

"Shut the hell up!" Cid pushed Cloud's arm away. "I don't want to hear it! It's time to get back to work." He hitched his pants up, "Anyone who ain't involved, get the hell out of here. If you want to try and kill me, that's fine too."

Cloud wasn't allowed time to think before the rocket shook. The engines had started up.

"What the hell?!" Cid ran to the control panel. The intercom crackled to life, emitting static and then the nasally voice of Yaphet Palmer.

"Hey-hey!"

"Palmer! What the hell did'ya do?!"

The roar of the engines became louder. Palmer's voice gleefully responded through the intercom. "They said they had finished repairing the auto-pilot. So I laun—ched it!"

"Goddamnit Shera!" Cid slammed the control panel. The doors sealed shut behind Tifa. "Why did she pick today to get fast?"

He began pressing buttons on the control panel. Cloud and Tifa stood at the back of the control room as the rocket began to shake. Tifa moved up beside Cloud and slowly slipped her hand in his.

"Damn!" Cid cried, "Won't even budge. It's completely locked up."

"Hey-hey!" Palmer squealed, "Almost lift off!"

"What?!" Cid screamed. "No countdown? It just don't seem the same without it!"

"Blasst—off!"

The engines roared beneath them and the shaking brought the three of them to the floor. Gravity tugged at their faces as the rocket blasted off the launchpad on its diagonal course out of the atmosphere.

Below, in Rocket Town, everything that wasn't tied down was blown clear out. Tires of cars crashed into trees. Yuffie and Nanaki were swept off their feet and rolled out of harms way. They looked up after the trail of black smoke to see the rocket shrink to nothingness in the morning sky.


	127. Book 5: Sending a Dream To the Universe

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 20**

**Sending a Dream Into the Universe**

There was a literal feeling of weightlessness - first of all. The shaking stopped and the feeling of being ripped apart ceased after twenty seconds. After that, it felt like stretching - being thinned out. Cid was lifted off the floor. The roar of the engines burned out and there was nothing but a slow murmur of the rocket's mechanic heart.

"I finally made it." He blinked out two small tear droplets from one eye and they wiggled like jelly towards the ceiling. He said the words that still filled him with the most childlike wonder. "Outer space."

Time to work. Cid pulled a cigarette - the last in his pack - out from behind his ear and lit it with the silver lighter he kept on him at all times. He turned to move to the control panel. It took a moment to realize that he couldn't make himself move in a conventional way.

"Cid," Tifa asked, "What's happening."

"I knew it would be like this," the captain hummed, cigarette flopping in his mouth. The smoke drifted aimlessly. There was no 'up' anymore. "There's no such thing as gravity in space 'cause there's no Planet to grab hold of you." It wasn't entirely true, but it was simple enough for beginners to understand. After all, they weren't rocket scientists. "I developed a system of gravitomagnetism, but I have to get to the controls to turn it on."

His feet neared a wall and he managed to kick himself away from it, floating slowly towards the panel. Cloud and Tifa watched him work the controls and they heard a small engine turn on. After a few moments, everyone dropped to the floor.

"We left at a speed of ten kilometres a second, which is twice what it should have taken - probably because of our slantways position. We're currently two hundred kilometres above the Planet's surface. We're in outer space."

"Right," Cloud said, "But where are we going?"

Cid continued with the panels. "Yup. We're headed on a collision course with Meteor. I was planning on flying it myself but Shera fixed the auto-pilot so we're all good. Well, not all good. There's still the whole collision course thing."

"Can't we do something?" Tifa asked.

"Palmer went out of his way to lock the auto-pilot device. We can't change course now."

Cloud looked at the screen, showing the rocket's current position between the Planet and Meteor. It's path was shown by dotted lines like the Midgar train system.

Ain't no gettin' offa this train we're on.

"This is the end." Cloud said solemnly.

Cid turned around and gave his leader an incredulous look. "What the hell are you talking about? You're young, and you give up that easily? I'm not gonna crash into Meteor! You think I helped design a rocket to fly myself without thinking of an escape pod? There's _always _an escape pod!"

Cid turned back to the controls. "We've got about twenty minutes before we should bail. Now why don't we have a chat about what to do with this huge materia problem?"

"I thought you said we were at a fork in the road."

"I know what I said before. But maybe all I wanted was to go into outer space." His aging eyes drooped. "It's a good plan. Operation: Starlight. If they've developed a materia bomb, that's probably better than anything we could have come up with."

"I don't want to trust anything Shinra does," Cloud said.

"You're more stubborn than me!" Cid laughed, "They're people too. You think they don't want to save the Planet? Shinra's kept destroying the Planet with mako because if they change their way of life, it would be like returning to caves and primitive structures. Returning to an Ancient way of life. They destroy the Planet because they can deny it was their fault. Meteor is something people can see and be afraid of. Everyone wants to stop this thing."

"Shinra can't be trusted to do good," Tifa said, "When we helped them after Meteor was first called, they tried to execute us."

Cid sighed. "I'm not trying to defend the Shinra. I'm just trying to defend this project. Maybe - for once, they got it right."

Cloud hummed. "Perhaps, Cid, you're right. I'd like to see this materia bomb. Do you know where they might have kept it?"

"There was an energy storage chamber at the nose of the rocket - it would be ideal as a warhead. It's just up this ladder." He led them through a door and up the aforementioned ladder.

When they arrived in the chamber, it looked much different than Cid had remembered.

Ten years ago, it had been a mako conductor. A circular room with a cone top and a large glass pillar in the middle. The floor had (and still was) completely made of silver electrical piping.

Now, inside the pillar's glass chamber were the two huge materia - a green and a blue. They were emitting a warm and gentle glow, and the lights that shone on them from within the chamber were reflected and shattered, brilliantly illuminating the cylindrical walls of the room.

Along the walls were things that made Tifa feel sick.

"Monsters," Cloud whispered.

Along the circular wall were faces in the machinery. Human faces. Cloud gave a rough count of fifteen but there could have been more. The skins on their faces were pale, and thin enough to see the purple veins that ran underneath them. Instead of having jaws curving the skin underneath the head, the faces didn't have heads - the skin stretched gruesomely and was twisted at the ends like the skin over a drum. Wires and small pipes poked through the stretched skin and wound their way along the frames of the faces like crude stitching. They were... grafted into the machinery.

"Oh Cloud, it's horrible!" Tifa cried.

Some of the heads opened their eyes and looked at them. Their eyes were bloodshot and they bulged out from the pale, sick looking faces. They did not speak. Cloud walked further into the room, looking at the heads closely. He wasn't terrified of the heads like Cid and Tifa were - he had looked darkness straight in her eyes at the northern crater. Severed heads did not frighten him. Still, he felt a little eerie. Their eyes followed him as he inspected their condition.

"They're hooked up to the wall panels," he said, "like Barret's gun-arm, their thoughts influence the machinery. Shinra has created a living machine."

"So all of these heads are going to use those two pieces of materia?" Cid asked.

"Looks like it. More likely, the impact with Meteor is going to trigger some automatic response in them. But where did they come from?"

"Shinra's probably been collecting them for weeks," Cid shook his head, "drenching them in mako and taking 'em apart little by little, replacing them with machine parts. Makes me sick. I take back what I said about Operation: Starlight. It's a mess, just like everything the Shinra touches."

"So what do we do, Cloud?"

"We can't change course," Cloud said. "These... machine people are going to die for good once they hit Meteor. I don't want to encourage Shinra to do this to people, but..."

They waited for him.

"I don't know if I could find another way to use the huge materia. This is almost the combined magical energy of twenty SOLDIERs. A one-time-only affair. If we take it away from them, their deaths will be in vain, and we might never find another way to destroy Meteor. If we leave it, Shinra is the hero and we're back to bombing reactors."

"I think," Tifa said, "I could still sleep at night if we went back to square one - way back in Midgar. I think that if we blow this chance at stopping Meteor, we might regret it for the rest of our-"

"Short, short lives," Cid smiled, but he was still put off by the disembodied faces. "Do whatever you think is right."

"All right," Cloud nodded, "We leave the materia. We've still got two of our own, and Shinra's intentions were sound, even if what they did here is... horrible. How do we get to the escape pod?"

"Follow me."

With plenty of time to spare, they returned down the ladder and into the control room, and back out into the entrance corridor. Cid walked past the entrance door and knelt at the end of the corridor. Tifa and Cloud stood and watched. The humming of the gravity machine was louder here.

There was a hissing sound and the floorboard in front of Cid's kneeling form slid out. Cid stood up. "That leads to the bowels of the rocket."

"That's a bit dangerous to have a trap door leading to a vertical shaft," Tifa commented.

"That's what she said," Cid laughed.

It was another ladder down to where the machinery did its workings. Machines clattered and clanged inside monstrous bronze iron walls and grating. They reached the bottom of the stairs and Cid began to run through a long corridor towards a metal circular door. He ran between enormous metal pods that reminded Cloud of the pods in Nibelheim. No windows, though, and no creatures inside. Cloud barely noticed the static element of the air. He barely saw the blue sparks curling around one of the tanks. Tifa was running ahead of him but his instinct took over and he grabbed her arm.

Cid seemed to run directly into an electrical field - a static wall in the air. The pressure of their arrival in the room caused one of the tanks to shake violently. It a split second, it blew, blinding them in a hot, white light.

Cloud cringed in fear as the light from the pod startled him. He could feel the force push him back but with his last ounce of strength he leapt forward to shield Tifa and Cid from the debris. He felt like he was being torn to shreds.

* * *

The blast was heard around the rocket, and the stowaway jumped when she heard the sound.

* * *

Some time later, Cloud awoke in an outstretched position, his hands ahead of him and inside the empty tank. His stomach was cut, but he was alive. He knelt up and looked around. Steam was still hissing towards the high ceiling from within the shattered tank. Tifa was wrapping a bit of her shirt around a gash in her arm - the white cloth was soaked red.

A huge, warped chunk of the tank lay on the floor. It must have been what knocked Cloud out. Beneath it was Cid, growling and struggling. The only thing visible was his head.

"My leg is stuck in the debris," he told them, but Cloud was already up and trying to help him.

"Cid!" Cloud exasperatedly cried. He grabbed a steaming hot corner of the tank and tried to lift. Tifa went to the other side and pulled on it as well. The hunk of metal budged, but was too heavy to lift.

"It's no good," Tifa pulled away, blowing on her burned hands.

"Don't worry about me," Cid panted, "Hurry up and go."

Cloud gave the red metal another pull. Still nothing.

"Did you hear me?!" Cid shouted. "Any minute now we're gonna crash into Meteor!"

Cloud looked Cid right in the eyes. "I can't go without my friends."

The ex-mercenary threw Tifa a glance and she immediately knelt down again and put her bare fingers and palm-gloves around the metal again. They pulled and strained, and they could hear the squishing noise of some jagged piece of the thing moving around inside of Cid's concealed leg. Cid grit his teeth and barked.

"You fuckhead. No time to worry about other people!"

_'There's always time to worry about my friends,'_ Cloud thought. "I'm going to do whatever I can."

Tears were flowing down Cid's face. "You're stupid. You're really fucking stupid."

Tifa and Cloud continued their frantic tugging of the metal hunk lodged inside of him. Cid bowed his head down. He looked at the empty tank, still spilling out steam and gas up into the air. "Tank number eight blew up," he realized. "So tank number eight really was malfunctioning. Shera... you were right."

Another humble attempt at freeing him failed. Cid leaned his head back and rested it against the grating. It was wet from his blood. "But this is the end for me."

"Don't say that, Cid," came a calm female voice from behind Cloud. He turned to see a short woman in a white coat with large spectacles, standing in the now open circular doorway. He recognized her, but not before Cid could cry out.

"Shera?!"

She walked towards them, smiling. "I tagged along. I figured you might need my help. I was right."

"Shera, that was so dangerous! You stupid fucking..."

She knelt down and looked at the metal - it was cooling, but still burning to the touch. She paid no heed to Cid's cries and grabbed the side. Her flesh hissed as the three of them pulled and pushed it. Cid winced.

"I'm sorry," said the Captain.

There was a popping, squishing noise as the pointed bit of metal was pulled out of Cid's thigh. He rolled out from under it just as the heat became too much to bear, and they dropped it.

"Quickly," Shera nodded. "The escape pod is right through here."

Cloud knelt down and picked up Cid, slinging one of his arms over his shoulder and propping him up. Tifa came to the other side of him and they dragged him towards the circular doorway.

"Shera," Cid asked, "Will the pod really fly?"

"I've been checking it until now, so it should be fine."

Cid paused, "Then I'm relieved."

The circular door led inside of a spherical room with four seats strapped to the bottom. There was a large table-like structure in the middle, its compartments fill of rations and chamber-pots. Cloud and Tifa sat Cid down on one of the chairs. He didn't make a single complaint.

"Please hurry," Shera said, "Any more delays and the pod might get sucked into Meteor's gravitational pull."

Cloud and Tifa took their seats and buckled up. Shera sat in the last one and used a remote to close the circular door. There was a large clicking noise. "That's the air in here being pressurized - separated from the rest of the ship. There is enough oxygen in here to last us the week if need be. And off we go."

* * *

As the rocket continued its path towards Meteor, a section of its outer shell shook free from the rest of the structure, ejecting out. Still attatched to it was the small spherical escape pod, hooked into its base by four claws. The chunk of the rocket spiralled away from the body of the vessel, and when Shera saw their destination (the Planet) through their small porthole window, she pressed the launch button.

The four claws released their grip on the escape pod and the base propelled the tiny sphere on its new path towards the Planet.

The main body of the rocket was pulled into Meteor's gravitational pull. It disappeared from sight, dwarfed by the enormity of its target.

* * *

On Midgar's top plate, Reeve Tuesti was nearing the Shinra building main entrance, and Meteor hovered over the building's head like a halo. He had been given basic information about the materia bomb, but he didn't know how, and until that moment he hadn't known when. The universe itself seemed to shake - the foundation of reality was warped for a moment and he was unsure of where he was, or who he was. He felt a massive magic tug from above and looked up just as the light from the explosion was big enough to light up the entire sky. He shielded his eyes.

* * *

On the other side of the world, in Bugenhagen's orrery, he was looking at a scale, holographic model of the Planet, and the Meteor that moved slowly towards it. The entire red ball seemed to explode and the holographic Odeon was awash in blinding white light.

* * *

When the light faded, Reeve could see the unnatural green light shining on the pearl building once more. It provided him with comfort. A crowd had gathered around him, and they all looked up as the light faded away. At first they could only see spots - the blast had burned itself into their eyes. They looked around with hungry smiles.

Someone pointed into the sky. "Look!"

Reeve looked.

He wasn't sure what to make of it at first. At first glance, it appeared that Meteor was still there, still completely in tact. There was something amiss, however, and Reeve and the denizens of Midgar scanned these new developments eagerly.

Chunks of Meteor had been broken off in the explosion, but they seemed to be attached to the main body of the rock via a strange looking blue energy - as if electric currents held them within close proximity to the core of the thing. Meteor still held its basic shape, and the bits of broken rock rolled to the back of the main body, trailing behind it like a blue tail.

When Reeve was sure that this was not some prelude to an even more spectacular explosion, he felt his knees weaken and soon he was on them, his face on the ground at someone else's feet. He punched the concrete. People around him were dropping in despair, and wails filled the boulevards.

* * *

Bugenhagen looked at the model of Meteor, still mostly intact, unchanged, and he shook his head in frustration. Meteor continued its slow descent towards the Planet.


	128. Cid's Diary: Tomorrow

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

**

* * *

**

**CHAPTER 21**

**Cid's Diary: Tomorrow**

Yesterday, Shinra No. 26 took off with me inside of it. If someone is ever to read this diary, the last thing they would have read would be my anticipation to restart the space program. That's not exactly how I came to be here, a lot of things happened in between, but I think the important thing is that I'm writing this in outer space. Shera brought this strange pen that works in zero Gs, as if she knew that I was going to bring this stupid thing.

This is my second (and probably last) diary entry. There was a huge battle – the town, that shit town, was damaged yesterday. We ran through, me and my spear tore through the bad guys. I don't like to kill – I wasn't a killer. I suppose everyone is and everyone isn't, but that's a bullshit way of saying you don't know until you kill someone. I hate doing it, but what I was talking about was yesterday, which was a shit day, yesterday. The window in my ship was cracked (it better be repaired by the time I get back) and my town was wrecked, by bullets and by a dragon. Oh yeah, P. fuckin S.: Dragons exist. Anyway, we ducked into my house to avoid the shitstorm out there, and I saw this pink and purple monstrosity sitting on the table by the back door. I had to grab it – there was room in my pocket for it. Maybe I knew that when I bought it. Maybe it was the only one in the shop. Small details of my life before being a killer are fuzzy and small. Who I was is gone. Yesterdays are shit, but I can't stop thinking about tomorrows now. Cloud and Tifa (my new friends and crew) are looking at me funny for writing in something so ridiculous, but nothing can get me down, because I'm in outer space. It's fucking… fucking… dizzying. I can't believe I'm here.

Since that moment when the clouds parted and I saw the stars – that drunken night in Kalm, I've been getting to know outer space as much as I can. Being here, though, is completely different. You'll never get a sense of how big it actually is until you see the Planet as this tiny little speck, and you're also this tiny little speck. And all the other planets and the moon are still just these tiny little dots and there is so, so much space between the stars.

There are creatures out here. Many have guffawed it… even I needed evidence for it to be proven. We named it Jenova, and I didn't find it in outer space. I didn't find it floating around or on some alien colony. It came to us long before Shinra No. 26 blasted its way towards oblivion, and I came face to face with it. I still can't understand the damn thing. I don't understand why it came, what it wants, what its doing or how. I just know it's on my planet and I'm in its space. We've switched, and I've been blowing up its shit and it's been eating up my shit. I've known about it for months now, and I hope it's heard of me now. It's summoned Meteor to come kill us all, and I almost destroyed Meteor today. Almost.

When you're talking about saving the human race, 'almost' doesn't quite cut it. No, sir, not at all. There's a rock that's going to hit us in a week or so, and everything will burn. This diary, this space man. Shera. Just over a week isn't nearly enough to start a new life together. Not long enough for me to say what's been building up inside for these years.

And here I said that nothing can get me down. We've been floating in an escape pod, eating flavourless rations and looking out a window at the vast expanse of space, and the only thing I want to do right now is get the hell back on the Planet.

Shera says we'll make it there by tomorrow. I hope this pod I designed will hold up in re-entry, or we may never make it to tomorrow. We'll burn to shit a week early. I've been to space. I wish it had been a trip of exploration, an adventure. It was a suicide mission, and if it weren't for the three men I have with me, I would have crashed right into Meteor with that bomb. The excitement and joy of being in outer space – my dreams – were sort of soured by the gravity of the situation. Yeah, I made a pun, fucking deal with it.

The funny thing about dreams is that you have them when you're young and naïve, but when you're old enough to accomplish them, there's all sorts of baggage you have to drag around – all kinds of cons and conditions and reasons to think that dreams aren't worth fulfilling.

If I told myself the day the launch failed, all those years ago, that I would fly that rocket on a journey to save the world, my younger self would be as happy as a fucking clam. What luck! What a noble fucking deed. What better reason to go into outer space? And when I was doing it, the dream mattered – I was shaking with anticipation. And being in space is nice. I love this place. I love it, but now that I'm doing the noble thing, trying to save the world, it doesn't feel noble, or right. I just want to get it over with, because the adventure isn't fun when you're in it. It's scary as hell. Space isn't fun when only a piece of glass is separating you from a breathless void. The world isn't fun when it's dying all around you. I want to help, but I don't know how.

I've made friends since my last entry, great friends. Friends I'll have for the rest of my life, whether or not we all die soon. I don't suppose you shake the bond you make when circumstance brings you together in an epic way. Going into space, fighting the fight. I suppose even death can't break that bond. One of us passed away on our journey, and yet she still seems to be with us. Still feels like she's there, I can see it in the eyes of everyone around. When I see myself reflected in their eyes, it's like she's standing beside me. Maybe I'm just going fucking insane.

I've been writing for a while – the Planet has grown to the size of my fist out of this window. I'll stop now, but before I go I should say some closing argument – some final words for when the worst happens and someone unearths this five hundred years from now, wondering about what exactly made us great.

Humans were fucked up creatures – great at being ignorant. We just loved to over-consume, overindulge, use, manipulate, murder, steal and fuckin waste. We loved to hurt others when we were hurting, so that we'd feel a smidge better. We loved to shift blame, to deny responsibility for our own mistakes, so that we could easily make the same ones over and over again. We loved being higher than other people. We loved to see those we cared about most cry, because it made us feel so fucking powerful. We loved shutting out love, because it meant we would have to have been vulnerable. Humans weren't like zolkalters, we didn't have shells on the outside protecting us from pain. We were soft and squishy, so we evolved the worst kind of shell, the kind that prevented our minds from touching. The kind that prevented us from using magic, from feeling things, from feeling goddamn weak. When we developed that, I think that was when we stopped being Ancients and started being humans.

But humans loved each other, man. We loved when we made people stop crying. We loved breaking our shells into fucking tiny little pieces. We loved preserving, saving lives and learning from our mistakes. We felt even more powerful when we needed to get helped, because we helped right back. We loved shitty operas and the smell of the wind in our faces. We loved letting go without shifting the blame, we loved to open our arms and accept whatever luck the wind carries, acting on it.

I've opened my arms to chance. I've opened my eyes and cracked my shell right the fuck open. I'm willing to accept that help, now. And I'm willing to help now. Being in space has taught me that. With the hugeness of its loneliness, with its goddamn finality. There is nothing more final than the black void of space, and here in zero gravity, I feel like something more than physical weight has been lifted off of me. With this fake oxygen, I can breathe easy.

And damn, do I need a cigarette.


	129. Book 5: Knights of the Round

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

**

* * *

**

**CHAPTER 22**

**Knights of the Round**

Upon re-entry, the metal heat-shield surrounding the escape pod blistered into a hot red, and a deafening whistle caused its four prisoners a mind-numbing pain. They plummeted towards the sea below them, streaking through the cerulean sky in a ball of flame.

"Three minutes until impact," Shera said through gritted teeth. Her large glasses shook on her face. Cloud saw sweat rushing out in sheets from her face – Cid and Tifa's as well. The heat was almost overwhelming; he could see droplets of water forming around the edge of the round window.

Nearly the entire three minutes were spent thinking of nothing but the intense heat and the uncontrollable shaking. As soon as he was able, Cloud asked the difficult question "Won't the fall kill us?"

Shera almost laughed. Cid just rolled his eyes at Cloud and pressed a large button on the wall. Just over a second later, the escape pod lurched to a stop mid-air. "You think I didn't pack a parachute?"

Cloud looked out the window as they dwindled towards the sea. They landed with little more than a splash – even less of an impact than when they had crashed _The Tiny Bronco_. The inside of the pod cooled down slowly – the sweat became sticky inside of his clothing.

The door of the pod – the circular metal door that looked like a pinwheel when closed – was facing up – the window looked down into the ocean. When Cloud unbuckled himself, he fell towards the window. Shera – still buckled in – played with the console and the door twisted open above them. The four of them climbed out and looked out in the vast ocean.

There was land not far off – half an hour's paddle, Cloud estimated. That is, if the escape pod moved as quickly as the_ Bronco_ had.

"I'll call the ship," Cid pulled the PHS from his jacket pocket and fiddled with the dials until he reached the right frequency. "_Highwind_ control, this is the Captain speaking."

After a few minutes, the timid voice of Will Bleer crackled through the round speaker section of the PHS. "Captain Cid! Where are you?"

"Can't say for sure. Have the navigators track our PHS signal – it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes."

"O-okay," Bleer began to move – it showed in his voice. "We all thought you had gone up and out with that rocket, Captain."

"We did, had a gay old time."

"I… don't understand."

"Escape pod, dumbass, we're floatin' on it in the middle of the ocean. Need you to come pick us up."

"…Sir? The navigation officers are saying that their equipment is interfered."

"Fuckin' great. Why's that?"

"They say that it occurs whenever Cait Sith is onboard, sir. The signal sent to the robot from its puppeteer conflicts with some aspects of the tracking system."

"Why didn't ya tell me before?"

"I don't know, why didn't you tell him before?... They're saying that it doesn't interfere with actual navigation, just PHS signals."

"Turn the damn cat off and get the system up and running again."

"… They're saying it might take up to an hour. Do you know where you are? We can come find you if there are any markers nearby."

"Goddamnit… There's a land mass nearby, we're heading there now. Just looks like high cliffs coming out of the water. Too far to see any other parts of it – might be a peninsula."

"Keep us informed."

Cid threw the black device back into his pocket. "Fuckin' numbskulls I got workin' for me."

Shera smiled and began to paddle.

* * *

Controlling the spherical escape pod was far more difficult than the raft-like Tiny Bronco, and mostly the girls had to sit behind the boys for counter weight so that their strong paddling didn't roll the pod right over. Cid mentioned that it was unlikely, due to the design of the sphere's weight – but there wasn't enough room for them all at the front of their bubble anyhow.

Cloud and Cid continued. Every once in a while Cid would heal his aching muscles. Each time that happened, Cloud commented about the strangeness of his newfound skill in magic use. Cid shrugged it off – he was far more used to the idea.

"After all, I've been using all this damn stuff for weeks. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing like using something sharp to do in your foes – but it feels good, curing myself. Tell me, something, Cloud?"

"What?"

"Oh, nevermind actually, I just remembered that you weren't in SOLDIER."

"It's okay. I knew some SOLDIERs, and carried the memories of a SOLDIER for a long while, so I may be able to answer your question."

"Does magic ever get addictive?"

"What, like cigarettes?"

"Ha ha, good one. I meant – do SOLDIERs ever get dependent on magical curing? You know, so their bodies don't develop antibodies on their own, shit like that?"

"In same cases, slumlings get dependent on potions and the like, which is why they're generally not sold for cheap. Their bodies get used to magical curing so they don't ever try to heal themselves. It worsens the situation down there, because people get more sick on the same old bugs. In SOLDIER, their bodies are infused with mako, so healing them isn't needed so much because their bodies are naturally, magically, healing themselves."

"Well, what about me? All that mako in the northern crater gave me magical abilities. What do you think is happening to my body?"

"Well I can't say for sure, but I doubt it's the same as SOLDIER. My best guess is that all that spirit energy just opened your mind to a place it hadn't been before."

"So I'm in danger of spoiling myself with all this curing I'm doing?"

"I wouldn't say you're in danger," Cloud smirked a bit, "I mean, we all were going on for months with our every itched being healed… you know, by Aeris. We don't seem to be any worse off. But everything in moderation, I suppose."

Tifa and Shera listened, but did not say anything. Suddenly, Cid's PHS crackled to life.

"Hello, is this AVALANCHE?"

Cloud grabbed the communication device from Cid's pocket. He put it towards his mouth as he paddled with one arm. "This is Cloud Strife, who is this?"

"This is Dearness. From the submarine."

Cloud smiled faintly. "What's up?"

"We've been thinking about what you said and we're going to take your advice. Better to live underwater than die in the flame, right?"

Cloud sighed, and with a humorous dry tone he said, "Well, I felt better until you reminded me that we're all going to burn to death."

"Sorry about that. If there is anything we can do to make the rest of your lives easier, let us know. We have the ocean at our command."

"Well, that might be an exaggeration," Cloud said.

"Look who's talking," Cid smiled at the ladies.

Cloud continued on the PHS. "Do you have enough rations to last down there?... How is the oxygen situation? ...Good, good. We'll be in touch a few hours before Meteor hits, so that you can replenish your oxygen levels. Have you found yourselves some companions yet? You might have to repopulate the world."

"Not yet."

Cid grabbed the PHS back from Cloud. "Give me that… This is Cid Highwind, sorry to cut the small talk, but can your navigation systems track where this PHS is?"

"That's a negative, Mr. Highwind. We were—" but Cid was already disconnecting them. Cloud frowned but continued paddling. No more words were spoken. When they reached the edge of the land, they saw that it only had a small ledge to stand on – everything else was vertical cliffs.

"All right," Cloud sighed when they were all off the escape pod and on the tiny plateau before the climb. "This climb looks like it's going to rival Gaia's cliff in difficulty, since we don't have gear. Fortunately, this one looks at most half the size, and it isn't covered in snow and ice. Let's get to the top and find out where we are."

"About half an hour before the Highwind picks up our signal," Cid sighed. "Can we make it to the top before then?"

"Even so, they could be on the other side of the world – it might take them a day to reach us. We might not be track-able from the base of the cliff, so let's get a-move on."

Cid snickered. "Get a-move on?"

Cloud rolled his eyes and reached up the cliffside, hauling himself up the rocky surface.

The cliff was kind to them for the most part, and had a steep yet passable incline with many jutting spikes and small ledges they could work with. Even Shera – in her now tattered mechanics coat and high heels – managed to keep pace. At one point, she looked down and nearly cried out, surprised by how far up they had gotten.

The drop to the sea seemed straight down, and the longer she looked the farther away it seemed, and the closer she seemed to losing her grip.

"Come on, Shera!" Cid barked, "Keep your head up!"

"Yes, sir!" she swallowed and looked straight ahead of her at the rock wall, pressing her nose against it and breathing for a while.

"Seriously?" Cid asked, "You just fell from outer space. An itty bitty cliff ain't gonna kill you."

"Have you looked down?" she asked without moving her head. She didn't turn to see if he had, but a few moments later she heard his exasperated cry.

"Goddamnit! …Shit! Don't look down, fellas!"

Tifa and Cloud were making their way quickly up the mountainside, unaffected by the scene happening around them. Consequently, they were the first to reach the peak and they looked around.

Cloud scanned the physical surroundings. They didn't seem to be on a peninsula of any kind – it was more like a completely circular cliff formation with a crater in the middle not unlike the innards of Gaia's Cliff. Unlike the Northern Crater, however, this island was most likely a volcano, not a meteor impact site. Still, the dip was quite neat, the volcano obviously hadn't been active for thousands of years, Cloud assumed. There was a forest growing lushly in the middle, that proved his theory enough for him to consider it fact. Quickly scanning over the horizon, he saw no other land masses.

"There's no way to tell them where we are," Cloud called down to Cid.

Tifa, who didn't seem to have even noticed their location, was already reaching down a hand to help Shera up. Cloud knelt down and held out his hand for Cid, who grunted as he accepted. They pulled their friends up to the clifftops and Cid looked around as Cloud had before him. Shera and Tifa regarded only the people they were with.

"No response from the _Highwind_ yet," Cid sighed. "It will be night soon."

The sun was at its apex. Tifa regarded Cid strangely. "Uh, Cid? It's mid-March. There are eight more hours until sunset."

"I meant 'eventually.'" Cid reached for his pack of smokes and realized he had run out. He threw the empty pack off the cliffside and they all watched it fall slowly until the wind began to knock it against the cliffside again and again until it was nothing but a speck. Cid stamped his foot and cursed.

Cloud thought that Aeris would have found all of this very funny. Everyone present found nothing funny about Cid's immediate outburst. They all knew that it would soon grow into a distracting grouchiness.

"Cid's right," Cloud said, "We should find cover. Besides, the top of the cliff would be a difficult place for the _Highwind_ to pick us up – let alone land. If we venture towards the forest, I'm sure can find shelter from the cold and maybe even a settlement."

"If there is a goddamn settlement down there, I sure as hell don't want to find it."

* * *

The thick, ancient trees sheltered them from the wind that purled around the island. The ground was soft and steady. They walked through the woods for hours – stopping when Shera needed breaks. Each of them regarded her with a nostalgic pity. They had once been like that – spry but quick to tire. In watching Shera's deplorable attempts at adventuring, it became clearest to Cid just how far he had come since meeting AVALANCHE.

Before the sun had set, they had crossed the island completely, and were looking at the uphill slope leading to nowhere.

"Great," Shera sighed, "Nothing."

"There's a cave just over there," Cloud pointed to a gaping hole in the cliff about a kilometre away. Tifa was still taken aback at his keen eyesight – his inhumanly-enhanced attention to detail.

They made their way around the edge of the woods and along the gentle curve of the island's rocky frame. The PHS crackled to life.

"Captain, this is Bleer. Our navigation systems are online. Please respond."

Cid answered. "This is Cid, can you track us?"

"Affirmative, sir! You are showing up on our map, just an hour or so away from our current position! You… you don't seem to be by any land mass."

"What the hell are you talking about? We're _on_ a goddamn land mass!"

"Not any land mass registered by the Shinra computers. You're showing up as a blip in the middle of the ocean above Kalm."

"An island as big as this? Check those old Fawlher maps."

After a while, a cold dark voice came through the speakers. "This is Vincent."

"Hey. You got the old maps in front of you?"

"Yes. There is no record of the island you are on."

"Well where are you?"

"We are just over the Wastelands. A few hours away at most."

"Well, tell that idiot Bleer to just fly towards us, he'll see the island."

"Right away, chief… Is Cloud there?"

"Yeah. Tifa too."

Vincent hummed. "Welcome home." The transmission ended.

* * *

The cave mouth was enormous, and the three warriors were wary to enter. It was big enough for a whole manner of creatures to fit through. Dragons included. Shera almost laughed at the mention of dragons, but they gave her a knowing glance. Without entirely believing them, she stopped laughing.

Cloud went first, sword silently drawn. There was darkness inside the cave (there wasn't much light left outside either) but his eyes adjusted quickly, and he liked what he saw.

The cavern was large and empty, with no noticeable cracks in the walls. Ash coloured roots seemed to wind their way inside of the cave. It became clear inside the cave how very old this island was – at one point or another, it must have been completely covered with trees.

"Mako use has scarred the Planet so much," Tifa touched the rotten wood, "It even affects places so secluded, like this."

"A mako fountain," Cloud pointed.

Nestled in a haunt of gray wood was a glimmering red light, reaching towards the roof of the cave from the floor like an upside down waterfall, gasping into vapour before reaching. The light danced upwards with seemingly no source. There was something solid at the bottom. Something red.

Cloud walked up to the source and plucked it out. He turned back to the group, clutching a jagged red crystal. "Natural summon materia," he announced.

"It can be shaved into a useable shape, right?" Cid asked.

"To fit into our weaponry? Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it. Summon creatures can be… difficult. I prefer to rely on straight magic – or physical force when I can."

"It's good to be prepared, though, ain't it?" Cid grabbed the crystal. "Do you think it is safe to use it?"

"What would you do if it responded?" Tifa asked.

"I don't know. The _Highwind_ should be here soon, so it could be safe to blow a new entrance to this cave."

"You're a real nature lover," Tifa sighed.

"You can't desecrate what's dead," Cid smirked, and held the crystal up above his head. It became illuminated and cast a bright red light around the cave. In a flash, Cid and the crystal disappeared.

Shera screamed. Tifa ran to her. "It's okay," she said, "He's using powerful magic right now."

"Usually," Cloud explained, "There will be some sort of palaver before you can cast the spell. Because the magic is so powerful, you need to prove yourself worthy to use it. It shouldn't take long. Then we'll disappear too."

"…Will it hurt?"

"No." Cloud had been used to leaving the material world, to be swallowed by ether – to be thrown into a world made completely of ideas. He understood the feelings. First the feeling of disconnection from senses, objects lost their vividness and their colour, until eventually everything that was 'real' was merely farce. Then a swimming sensation, until the summon creature greeted him.

This time, it was something completely different. The strength in which they were ripped from the material plane was so great it felt like his skin was being torn off. Their surroundings didn't fade from relevancy; they shattered into a violent crystal wind. When the pain ceased (it was only a brief and terrifying moment of disconnect) they found themselves and Cid standing in a broken, swirling red void.

Something was approaching them from the distance – it was only a flicker at first, but as it approached, they could see it was an enormous, heavily armoured soldier with a thick long sword. His barbute was crowned with a long, flowing yellow tail (perhaps made from chocobo feathers). He flew towards them from the distance and in his wake, the long sword left a sparkling trail. He slowed to a stop when he reached them and stood quietly, holding the sword pointing down in front of him. Cloud recognized this as a military stance. In his stillness, the warrior looked incredibly dangerous.

Another warrior flew in from above them before they had a chance to fully scrutinize the first. The second warrior wore a sallet covering his face but the helmet had no tail. This one was caped and wielded a long thin quarterstaff – a crude wooden version of Aeris' metal staff. As if to make up for this fact, the second warrior twirled it around his head a few times at incredible speeds before landing beside the first warrior. They stood on a platform of nothingness before the party.

_'Two of them,'_ Cloud thought, but as soon as he had another figure was coming in from the right. A red robed man with a large basinet and a magister staff slid beside his brothers, looming over the party. The staff curled with smoke.

More and more figures emerged from the darkness, each heavily armoured with gold shields and mails from all eras. Each of them had a distinct weapon – a scimitar, a trident with points made clearly from ultima shards. One particularly impressive warrior brandished an enormous battle axe.

Cloud had been keeping count, and the axe warrior made eleven. They stood in a collected group before them. The red haze behind faded into a dull black but the warriors themselves seemed to glow like a white light.

Cid, who was still holding the stone, stepped forward. "Hey," he called up at them.

None of them moved from their strict militant formation. From the distance, they heard the clumping of iron boots as if someone was walking down a large marble hall. It came from behind the group of warriors. Two glowing, steaming yellow eyes emerged from the darkness and stared down at them. They could see, faintly lit by the glow of his eyes and by the luminescence of the warriors in front of him, that he had a long, flowing crimson cape.

The voice that came from beneath the smoking eyes was deep and sorrowful, as if it had seen all the world's suffering and nothing else. He spoke slowly and his words shook the void. "How long has it been?"

Cid stood before the glowing warriors and their dark leader. "I don't understand the question."

"Since the calamity from the skies," he said, "How long has it been?"

"Oh. About two grand, I guess."

"Two grand?"

"Two thousand years," Cid blinked.

"Are you saying that you warriors," Cloud approached cautiously, "You're from the time of the Cetra?"

The yellow eyes blinked. "I hadn't said anything yet, I merely asked a question. You have given me a straight and true answer to mine. An answer to your question, however, might be more difficult to come to. It can be argued that we are Cetra."

"You don't look like any damn Cetra," Cid smirked.

"Cid!" Tifa scolded.

"Alas; being born of the Lifestream complicates our existence," the slow deep voice said mournfully. "Our origins are much simpler than our current incarnations. Sit, fellows, for I have looked into your souls and have seen the light within. You are welcome company among me and my knights."

_'Knights,'_ Cloud hadn't heard the word other than in legends about old humans – never Cetra. He was confused for a moment as to whether sitting was possible or not, but he trusted and began to sit down. His body remained in a relaxed position without effort. The others did the same.

"We have been shaped by the many souls in the Lifestream who carry our memories – real or false. This includes our own, as we were once real Cetra. Because of this, we have much knowledge of ourselves and the world in which we all live. To start at the beginning would lead you to death from age before finishing. It would be best for you to ask us questions. You may have one each. The answer to the first begins now.

"We, the twelve knights, were once the Cetra who defeated the calamity from the skies and sealed him away. Our legend was passed on from generations of Cetra and humans for over a thousand years. The souls carrying memories and knowledge of us went into the Lifestream and after a thousand years, the Planet collected the knowledge of us and created a fountain of life. We were thusly born into this crystal – born as a hybrid from millions of minds, millions of interpretations of our legend. This is the nature of all materia-born magic – it is the collective covenant of knowledge."

"Sort of a spiritual middle-ground," Cloud clarified.

"Yes. Perhaps the 'Gods' you may find in red crystals never truly existed, but enough people believed that they manifested in solid spirit energy. Where we are concerned, the legend varies. Our true selves are but twelve men among millions, and our memories matter as little and as much as any other twelve. Some men had it in their minds that our numbers were as many as one hundred and fifty, but as you said, the Planet found a spiritual 'middle-ground' and from it, we were brought into existence here. After a thousand years, the legends stopped, and our memory was lost along with much other knowledge concerning the Cetra and the calamity. Has our answer been satisfactory?"

Cloud thought, and nodded. "Yes."

"I see much of you, Cloud Strife. Our answer is satisfactory to you because your primary interest is not in the understanding of a concept; rather it is applying that concept in a useful way. You wish to gain only enough knowledge to use. This is both a very good and a very dangerous quality in a leader."

"Thank you. That being said, I would like to state that in our questions, we are seeking knowledge about you and the calamity Jenova." He was saying that for Shera's sake.

"I am not finished," the dark voice said, although there wasn't a hint of malice in the voice. "You have a pure soul, Cloud Strife, and a strong mind. You are touched by something evil, however, a scar left by a poison of some kind. It reminds me of the virus given to humans by the calamity from the skies. Explain yourself."

Cloud sighed. "I was given the virus by the calamity. Some people freed Jenova from her seal and I was subject to her will for many months. I am free from the virus, and I don't know of the evil you are talking about, but I'll be careful, for I plan to face Jenova again."

"See that you are. Next question, please."

Cid and Tifa turned to Shera. It was a wise thing to let her go next. As a guest in their party, she could quite possibly ask an irrelevant question. Or, she could fluke out and ask a very important question. In any case, all eyes were on her to see what she would say.

"Uh…" Shera slid her round glasses up her face. There was no need to in this unreal world, but it was a nervous twitch. "What are you… like?"

Cid slapped his forehead in shame.

"Your leader has specified that you seek knowledge in relation to the calamity. I will speak, then, of the way in which we operate as knights. A knight was a phrase created five hundred years after the calamity was sealed, by many humans. In your early civilizations, they had elite warriors in each kingdom who upheld the same ideals that the Cetra lived with: To never do outrage nor murder. To by no means be cruel but to give mercy unto him who asks for it. To strive to heal and cultivate the Planet and to never waste the fruits of your labour – instead to share them with every living creature. These values were ingrained in the Cetra's core minds, disobeying these rules simply wasn't fathomable to them. To those humans who fashioned themselves into knighthood, the same rules applied to them, and they risked banishment for breaking those rules. We represent the epitome of knighthood – we are what knights strived to be but could never be. In this form, we are perfect. In our real form, we were simply Cetra. Those values were part of our every movement. We were not outfitted with weapons or armour – these things are fabrications of millions of imaginations. We did not use weapons, we did not kill, we did not waste. We banded together once to combat the evil, and everything else about us has been sensationalized into reality. We have had many names by many cultures in many languages, and understand them all and can agree on none. We prefer to be called as a group Je Terra, or the Knights, if you will. Have we answered your question in a satisfactory manner?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Shera, you are a very intuitive and caring person. However, you are so externally focused that you have the tendency to be hard on yourself and turn to dark thoughts when alone. You define your life's direction and priorities according to other people's needs, and may not be aware of your own needs. You place other people's needs above your own, but for your sake, you must stay aware of your own needs, lest you sacrifice yourself in your drive to help others. Next question."

There was a silence as Shera digested the information given to her. Tifa eventually spoke. "How did you defeat Jenova? Please give us the truth, and not a sensational legend."

"To give the truth in a subjective world is difficult, Tifa Lockheart. We will try to tell you things that have no contradictory claims – even by our original selves. Those things must be fact. You have named the calamity Jenova. 'Je nova' in the Ancient tongue means 'of the stars.' We have been referred to as 'je terra' for opposing her – an embodiment of the Planet's will to fight her. This, of course, is how people remember us.

"The way the calamity has operated for an eternity is thus: he relies on the values of the Cetra and the nature of the Lifestream to consume. He requires this consumption to live. Our minds as Cetra could not even begin to imagine killing something. For us to even consider it now is a perversion caused by the human minds that created us. This is how the calamity was able to survive feeding off so many planets for so long. The way the Planet rushes to heal a wound is what feeds the parasite, and the Planet's defence mechanism has a built in flaw that is useless against it. They are unable to kill it. This is why WEAPON was created – to combat the calamity. However, when the calamity came, things were already happening to the Cetra. Some of them were building settlements; some were consuming the earth as well as cultivating it. We were already heading down the path towards humanity. The calamity gave some humans the virus, and as long as the afflicted were alive, he could not be defeated. We attempted to seal him with the most powerful magic that the Planet allowed us, and the creature could not be sealed due to parts of itself infecting people around the world."

"Jenova cells…"

"Eventually, all of the infected gathered in one place – Knowlespole, the arrival point. There, the calamity collected as one whole again, killing those who had once been infected. The twelve of us did a magical battle there in the icy crater, cracking the solid earth until it was naught but jagged pathways. We managed to defeat him when he was all in one piece, while he was transforming into the figure of our mothers. He was trying to scare us away from fighting him. We sealed him before the transformation was complete, and left him there. Apparently, we did not hide him well enough. Does our answer satisfy you?"

"Yes."

"Very well, Tifa Lockheart. You have a good soul, and are on a continuous mission to find truth and meaning. Every encounter and every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through your brain to help you define or refine your own path in life. Currently, it is making the world a better place. Unfortunately in the time of humans, that involves conflict. You are a capable warrior yourself, but you approach conflict from the perspective of your feelings. You place little importance on who is right and who is wrong. You focus on the way that the conflict makes you feel, and indeed do not really care whether or not you are right. Trusting your feelings seems to work for you, but you would do best under a leader who made decisions based on logic rather than emotions, since your primary emotion seems to be sadness."

"That's enough, thank you."

"Very well. You have one final question."

Cid stood up and held the crystal tightly. "Jenova is complete again, and is hiding behind a giant barrier. Will you help us defeat it again?"

There was a long pause as the steam flowed out of the yellow glowing eyes. None of the other knights moved, they stood perfectly still, as if they were statues of antiquated armour, and hadn't been moving earlier.

The yellow eyes squinted in thought. "No."

"No?! What do you mean, no?!"

"In order to defeat the calamity two thousand years ago, we used all the strength that the Planet could give us. Even with all of that power, it still took an incredible amount of luck to defeat him. The Planet has been weakened considerably. The Lifestream is being depleted, and the calamity je nova is responding accordingly."

"Yes," Cloud interjected, "Humans have become the parasite, so Jenova has summoned a Meteor to kill us all before we can render the lifestream un-eatable."

"Yes, he means to absorb the dead and move on to the next planet. It is interesting that you say that humans have become the parasite, for we put more faith in your abilities than we do in our own. I do not think that summoning us against Jenova would weaken it, as we are an enemy he is used to. If chance were to dictate our success, we would only seal the creature until the next civilization were to make the same mistake. Jenova must be killed, and it is humans who must do the killing. As for the barrier, it is a magic we have not encountered. Our success against it is undetermined. Has this answered your question?"

Cid was tempted to say no. He wanted to ask it again until they gave him the right answer. "Yeah," he said, "Shit."

"You have a good soul, Cid Highwind. Like your leader, you make judgements impartially, based on facts. However, you are not naturally tuned in to how you are affecting others. You do not pay attention to your own feelings; you distrust them and try to ignore them. You have difficulty distinguishing between emotional reactions and value judgments. Because of this, you exhibit rash emotional outbursts of anger, or on the other extreme may be overwhelmed by emotions and feelings which you feel compelled to share with people, often inappropriately. You have proven yourself to be a good leader despite this, and we are proud to be in your service. When it comes to obstacles on the way to the calamity, we would be happy to lend ourselves as long as your will may command it. This palaver is now over. We may speak more when you next need us."

The knights faded into the blackness and the void seemed to shatter like a window, the air splintered apart revealing the real world behind it. They were standing in the cave as before, standing in the same spot, as if they had never moved.


	130. Book 5: Chaos

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V  
**

**Weapon  
**

* * *

**Chapter 23**

**Chaos**

"Bring her down here," Cloud ordered.

There was a new square of glass on the _Highwind_'s bridge, fixed between its rib-like window pattern that provided a curving glass wall at the front of the ship. The new section of glass was replacing the window that had been shot by the _Gelnika_. Before it had been replaced, no one had noticed the stains on the rest of the glass due to the amount of smoke floating on the bridge. Now, it was startlingly clear how dirty they were. They were still completely useable by anyone's standards, but everyone's eyes now looked at the open sea through that specific, cleaner section.

Tifa, however, wasn't looking out at the sea but at the dirty panes of glass herself. She wondered if the inside of her lungs was the same – tainted by the smoke that filled the airship.

Cid, meanwhile, was feverishly lighting up another cigarette – as if making up for lost time. He seemed more at ease with the white stick in his mouth, and he watched Bleer handle the great wooden steering wheel with a confidence that had been growing steadily, but seemed to have shot to new heights since he last saw him. Perhaps being out from underneath the Captain's watchful eye had forced Bleer into some new confidence, or perhaps he was losing his old bootlessness and the confidence was a side-effect of that. Cid hoped it was the latter, but could only speculate – he was too busy drawing deep breaths of sweet Woodlands tobacco. "Maybe it's just me," he had said upon looking thouroughly at the helm, "but has the ship been remodelled without me knowin' it? All these switches and levers. They're kinda getting' to me."

Barret was looking at the Fawlher maps – specifically, he was looking at the ink that had marred the world map on the top right corner. Cloud had scrawled a small circle and some letters that Barret did not understand. Barret knew he had a good handle on common (he had written really eloquent AVALANCHE posters if-he-did-say-so-himself) but couldn't understand the word that Cloud had written before the word 'Island.'

"What does KotR mean?" Barret asked.

"Knights of the Round," Cloud responded from the apex of the bridge. He stood where the floor ended and the wall of glass curved before him. "To just call them the Knights wouldn't be specific enough."

"Knights of the Round Island, huh? Why didn't you just write Round Island? This is a map, ain't it? The materia ain't there no more."

Cloud was baffled, and hummed through his sheepishness.

Bleer carefully lowered the _Highwind_ closer to the ocean's surface as the submarine emerged from the water below them. It had been half a day since the ship had retrieved them from Round Island (and a tricky manoeuvre that had been – the ship couldn't land anywhere on the land mass so they had to jump from the highest point onto a ladder that Bleer had lowered) and they had rested and washed. Shera was somewhere on the ship – but passengers were not allowed on the bridge. Not even Shera, and Cid had been careful to be overly-non-biased due to their history. She was most likely in the mess hall with Priscilla and the other refugees they had collected around the world.

The _Highwind_ stopped descending as a buzzing noise began to blink on and off from the helm. An engineer warned Cid that they were too close to the water. Cid had responded with expected crassness. Cloud and Bleer left the bridge and headed to the passenger deck, where Bleer tossed the long ladder down. It was just the right length, and tapped the roof of the submarine just beside the entrance. Cloud noticed that there was a painted name on the submarine now – the paint had been muddled a bit by the waters, but he could still clearly make out the name: _The Wandering Tide_. He was impressed at its imagery.

The lid over the entrance ladder popped open and Cloud saw the familiar face of Dearness, who climbed out and stood on the wet, gray surface of the _Tide_. He waved up at them, and they both waved back. Coming up out of the innards of the ship was a sparkling red crystal.

Cloud's jaw dropped. He now understood Yuffie's enthusiasm whenever she saw materia. The magnificence of its glint as it emerged like a mu from its hole was peripheral to its value as a symbol. Just as every sphere of crystallized lifestream was a symbol to Yuffie as a chance to restore her kingdom's honour, this huge materia – in its spectacle and grace – represented another chance to take down Sephiroth once and for all. KotR had seemed so ineffably powerful hidden inside their jagged, natural state, but even they were useless against the festering might in the northern crater. Maybe the situation required something bigger. Something this big.

As Dearness grabbed it and pulled it completely out of the submarine, Bath emerged from beneath it, pushing it up with all of his might. Cloud was already heading down the ladder to retrieve it – Bleer in tow.

They stood on the flat roof of the _Tide_, a small metal island in the middle of the ocean. Dearness and Bath held the huge materia together as if they were home-movers handling a delicate chesterfield. Cloud stared into the giant crystal, even larger than the yellow one they had onboard.

"Thing's heavy," Dearness said, "Might want to get a rope and tow it up."

"No need," Cloud said, and grabbed the PHS. "Yuffie to the passenger deck, please."

Soon she was there, leaning over the edge. She looked ill. "Make it quick," she said.

"We need some help bringing this thing up," Cloud said. Yuffie's eyes sparkled upon seeing the huge materia, and Cloud smiled up at her.

"No prob," she closed her eyes and reached out her hand – as if she could grab it right then and there.

Dearness and Bath reacted suddenly, feeling the materia become almost weightless in their hands. Cloud could feel the magic tug coming from the _Highwind_'s passenger deck – he knew she was casting a levitation spell. He grabbed the huge crystal from the men with one hand and held it before them. It felt as light as any materia.

"_The Wandering Tide_," Cloud looked at the name beneath their feet. "I like it."

"Thanks. We're almost done preparing. The last thing we need is…"

"Women," Bath finished clumsily.

Cloud threw them a pouch from his belt – it jangled as it landed in their hands. "That's a few thousand gil," he said, "If you can't find anyone in the next week, buy a few private dancers to come down for a few days. If Meteor hits, they won't want to come back up anyway."

Dearness nodded. Bath stood at attention – as lieutenants do in the presence of SOLDIERs. Cloud nodded back and made a shooing motion with his free hand before turning to climb back up the ladder.

* * *

The _Highwind_ was on the rise as the party gathered around the red huge materia. Cloud had placed it in the centre of the bridge as Yuffie ended her spell, and it had clanked to the floor without bouncing, as if it was still pushing on the ground wanting to get through.

It was gorgeous, emitting a fiery glow and they all stared at it for a while.

"If the Knights…" Cid began.

"I know." Cloud said. There was no need for words; they were all thinking the same thing. The only question that was worth answering was the one Barret asked earnestly.

"How do we _use_ the damn thing?"

Cloud thought, and then spoke. "On the rocket, two huge materia were connected to fifteen human minds. When the rocket hit, it triggered all of the minds to use the materia at once. That… monstrosity was built to handle four huge materia, and it only used two."

"And it damn didn't work," Barret huffed.

"It worked enough to scar Meteor," Cloud pointed to the sky, where Meteor was ever larger. The broken pieces revolved around it like a tiny solar system – like Bugenhagen's orrery.

"Cloud," Nanaki suggested, "You said that those humans were most likely members of SOLDIER, or at least subjects of Hojo's experimentation."

"Yes, but all of us can use magic, Nanaki. The Planet has imbued us with the powers of SOLDIER." He wasn't sure it was the Planet's will, but he was clinging desperately to that little wire of hope.

"Well," Cid said, "Let's try it and see if it works."

"Perhaps rushing into it is not the wisest of courses," Vincent said calmly, "After all, summoning materia is fickle, and it may have dire consequences."

"We should have let Shinra keep all the damn huge materia," Cid growled, "Maybe the four of them together would have solved our problem."

"How dare you say that!" Yuffie cried, "After everything we've learned about materia?! You would willingly throw pieces of our Planet's soul up in smoke so that Shinra could succeed? We lost enough of it, if the other two had gone up—"

"Well it's too late for that now, one way or the other," Cloud shushed them. He, Tifa and Cid didn't have the heart to tell the party that they had left the huge materia in the rocket by choice; everyone had just assumed that it had been impossible and they hadn't spoken of it. Cloud didn't want to get into that discussion. "The yellow one is useless to us; it's like an empty page with no words on it. But we know that when materia is coloured red, the memories inside of it are united to form a powerful being. Controlling the being usually requires a bit of force from the caster, but we're not looking to control it right now. We just want to find out what it is."

"Talk to it, like we did with the Knights," Tifa repeated for her own clarification.

"Right. Is everyone ready?"

Around the circle, everyone nodded and braced themselves. Barret was reluctant to do so, but he closed his eyes. Cloud was the last. As he poured his energy into the stone, he could feel it melding with the energies of his friends. It was like he was pouring a basin full of water into a running stream. They all travelled together.

* * *

As their minds swirled into the red stone, Cloud immediately felt something amiss. Everything had been going as normal but there was a sudden feeling of sickness, as if their happy stream had been poisoned by black water. He heard a distant clanging sound – like the sound of old gates slamming down shut. It echoed in his mind. He felt trapped.

It was dark now, and he could feel himself being ripped away from the collective consciousness. All feelings after that were of fear and pain.

It began as a harsh stinging in his mind that rattled around and grabbed his concentration. He lost his focus and that's when the pain began. Some force began eating into him. He didn't have a body, it was dark and he was a floating soul but it suddenly felt like his skin was being slowly peeled off of him by razor sharp teeth, coming from a million directions at once.

He tried to scream, and he heard it in his mind, but he knew that he was making no audible noise. The darkness responded with laughter.

Things began to come to him. They were unlike Jenova's voiceless voice, and the voice of his true self, which had sent clear messages to his conscious mind. These were not messages, but they did inform him of things.

As he felt his muscles starting to burn, he realized that this was what hell felt like. The darkness seemed to confirm this, and he had a brilliant flashback of the tympanum in the church in Virennion. A black creature rained fire and rocks onto humanity, and this burning was that feeling. The feeling of the abyss those people believed in. The end, the omega.

He felt a sick pulling, like a creature drawing out his insides. This was hell. Hell would never help those seeking to do good. That was one of the things that the darkness taught Cloud. He would never find help in here. This creature was born from the fears of every soul. That was why it was the biggest. Every nightmare hidden in every mind had travelled through the lifestream and wound up collected, congealed, into this living perdition.

"Chaos" was the only word that ever came through – a word that by itself wasn't indicative of evil, but to name a creature that was to dub it the enemy of righteousness. King of the inferno.

Not that seeing mattered, but it felt like his eyes were being stabbed by billions of small needles. The pain was mortifying. He was still trying to disconnect, but he was trapped in here. The darkness taught him that he couldn't escape – that to travel here was to surrender himself to the whim of "Chaos."

There was no help coming, he learned from the darkness. His friends were all like him, being tortured. And none of them had the strength to last through it like he did. They would all die in the stone, but Cloud would live the longest. Live long enough to know that they were all dead before him.

Even though he had no form, his mind knew that his eyeballs were being ripped from his head. Instead of seeing darkness without eyes, what he saw instead was even more frightening. He saw a blinding white light. The flashing light of a camera, catching him in the background of a photograph he shouldn't have been in. The flash of Jenova taking over his mind. The light of death. And Chaos, Chaos, Chaos.

With a kick from a burning leg, Cloud managed to feel something of a disconnect from the pain – he managed to nudge the gate in his mind that kept him trapped in this suffering. He beat at the gates to his mind, begging to get back in.

There was a final jerk and the pain stopped increasing – it raged on as strong as before, but it stopped getting worse. As Cloud pushed through, he felt himself swimming against a strong current, as if the huge materia was sucking energy in without prompt. As he began to feel his body again – his real body – a final message came through.

If he came to Chaos again, he would die. And the world would burn.

The light exploded into a brighter flash as Cloud opened his eyes onto the real world. He was still in horrible pain, and only had a few seconds to look around and see his blood spraying in all directions before he fell to the floor and the pain took him.

Around the huge materia, six heroes lay bleeding from wounds their minds had received. Crew members dashed to their sides with potions, yelling at each other. In the commotion, no one noticed Vincent, who stood behind the crowd with his face hidden in his collar. He watched the scene with worried eyes. He was completely uninjured.

* * *

A day had passed. Their wounds had been healed (thankfully the feeling of being torn apart had been an exaggeration – each of them had only received slashing wounds) and they met on the bridge the following morning. Vincent stood in the back, not saying anything. He knew that they would assume he had been the same as them. The level of trust in the party was unspeakably high, and without robotic Cait Sith to see him, no one had any cause to doubt or fear Vincent. It was probably for the best not to concern them with this.

Vincent was full of doubt and fear for himself. He had simply been rejected from the stone, like an angry hand had batted him away from entering. He opened his eyes, expecting to see everyone's sad, disappointed faces. He instead saw them tightened in pain as blood began to pool underneath their clothing – as slits drew themselves across their faces. As, one by one, they opened their eyes and fell to the floor like corpses.

Cait Sith had since powered back on, and the engineers on the control panels were grumbling as they dealt with the repercussions. "Rufus's plan didn't work," was the first thing the cat said.

"Ya figure?" Barret snorted, "I was kinda hoping it would, though."

"The two huge materia that we have are useless. One is as dead as a rock, the other is… much too alive to be useful."

Everyone hummed their agreement at his careful statement. He made sure not to say any key words such as 'torture' or 'pain' lest he cause any psychosomatic flashbacks. In a few days, they would talk about it and be fine, but so soon afterwards was just unkind. The huge red materia still sat like a small mountain the middle of the bridge, glowing like fire.

"Well," Cait Sith turned to everyone, "We've been bothering Shinra as much as we all can. But there isn't another way. Makes you worry, doesn't it?"

Tifa leaned in towards the table. "Don't worry! Think!"

Cid smiled at her. "You know, the girl's gotta point. You start worrying and there's no stopping it. Things just get worse and worse."

"That's pretty damn optimistic," Barret said.

"Yeah, I've been thinkin' about this and that. All the time we've been up here lookin' at the Planet. I've been thinkin', even when we were floating in the ocean in that escape pod…"

"I've been thinking, too," Cloud said, "About the universe… planet… ocean. How wide and big… no matter where I go and what I do it won't mean a thing."

Cid shook his head, "Maybe you're right, but I came up with something different. I always thought this planet was so huge. But lookin' at it from space, I realized it's so small. We're just floating in the dark… kind of makes you feel powerless. On top of that, it's got Jenova festering inside it like a sickness. That's why I say this planet's still a kid. A little kid, sick and trembling in the middle of this huge universe. Someone's gotta protect it. Ya follow me? That someone is us."

"Cid…" Tifa started, "That's beautiful."

"Damn," was the only way Barret could articulate the things happening inside of him. "How can we do it? How're we gonna protect the Planet from Meteor?"

Cid looked into Barret's eyes and his shoulders slumped. "I'm still thinkin' about that."

"We've been running towards dead ends," Cloud said, "All of us. AVALANCHE, Shinra. We've been trying to find a way to keep ourselves alive. And Sephiroth… I just don't know what to do. What we can do? We can keep running towards those dead ends until Meteor hits, that doesn't seem like a way to end our lives…"

"Do you hear that?" Nanaki's ears perked up. At first, they all looked at the beast with concern. Cloud's hand instinctively caressed the handle of his sword. Tifa's fists were clenched. Nanaki saw them preparing for battle. "No," he said, "Don't be alarmed. Listen."

They listened. It began as a low sound, like a whale song. It swelled somewhat mournfully, but was still very hard to hear.

"The Planet's scream," Tifa said, and for a moment her voice drowned out the sound. It took a few seconds for them to hear the dull crying of the world.

"How do you know that this is the Planet screaming?" Cid asked.

"Bugenhagen told us," Cloud told him. "I suppose you weren't there to hear it like the rest of us. Bugenhagen said that it was strange that humans could hear it at all, even with his machines. And now we can hear it with our naked ears. It's crying."

"That Bugenhagen guy," Barret smiled a bit, "He was a weird old dude. I thought he was some kinda naturalist, but has all into them machines."

"Bugenhagen used to be a pretty handy Shinra worker," Cait Sith said, "He never bought weapons or mako products, though. He… doesn't like me because I'm powered on mako batteries."

Nanaki's eye widened suddenly. "Let's go see Grandpa in Cosmo Canyon! I'm sure he'll be able to tell us something that will be helpful."

Cloud nodded, not yet ready to give up. "Nanaki is right. He might have some wisdom for us. Set a course for the Valley of the Fallen Star."


	131. Book 5: The Jenova Project

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V  
**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 24**

**The Jenova Project**

The sun was a mellow red in the sky, emitting a dull light over the valley. Vincent stood at the edge of a large precipice – a chasm of some kind. Behind him, green cloth tarps jutted out over the rooms that had been built inside the cliffs, the humans had carved their way through the valley like ants. Vincent had spoken with Bugenhagen months ago, and had learned a great many thing. He was in no need to ask Bugenhagen for direction. Instead, he preferred to wait outside as the others went in for their meeting.

It was well into spring now, and warm bubbles of air rose from the chasm and gave gentle breezes to his matted hair and heavy cape. He was unsure of why he felt he needed his cape – why he always retrieved it after his transformations discarded it whenever they took over.

Ah, yes, he thought. Leave your mind to its own workings and it will eventually stumble upon the very thing you were trying not to think about. Or perhaps, he thought, this calm place, this village teeming with wisdom was exactly the place to think about such things.

A galian beast. A death gigas. A hell masker. Their names suggested that they were from the abyss, the abyss in which Chaos ruled. As he heard it described, the huge materia contained the boogeyman. Every soul has had a being that has terrified them, an intangible force hiding underneath the bed, behind closed shower curtains, waiting for them in their sleep. It is only logical that such a powerful memory could prevail so efficaciously. That those memories could congeal into the personification of evil, just as he had heard the Knights of the Round described as their apparent antithesis. Good versus evil, a concept so flawed, yet so simple to grasp that everyone secretly holds to it.

"Materia doesn't keep secrets," he mumbled to himself, and saw his breath on the air. Perhaps it wasn't quite warm enough yet, but his long cape wrapped around him, made him feel like he was still in bed.

He should still be in bed. He could live forever, but he could also sleep forever if he let himself. After all, he was carrying the agents of the boogeyman – surely he was more of a liability than an asset. Surely, with so much evil inside of him, he would not be able to defeat their enemy.

Their enemy. The baby Sephiroth. Vincent had held that child in his hands, when he hands of flesh. Sephiroth had come into this world as terrible and bloody as he left it, and Vincent hated himself for it.

* * *

There had been a nice, warm, gentle breeze in the Nibel valley when the Shinra helicopter had dropped him off there at the gates. The doors fell open before the helicopter landed, and he stood in the doorway, such a tall and lanky boy that he had to crouch down just to stand in the vehicle. The wind rippled through his too-black-to-be-blue Turk suit. He was still reading through the Nibelheim file when he stepped onto the soil. The mayor's name was Lockheart, his only son had just been married. Vincent flipped through the photos and information – if only he hadn't slept in the helicopter!

His hair was longer than he usually preferred it – when in Midgar he usually cut it diligently on the first day of the month. It was part of his strict routine: pay the rent and various Shinra bills (mako, water, taxes), cut his hair, go to the shooting range in Sector 4. He had been out of the city for nearly two months now, and he could see the tips of his bangs hanging down in front of his eyes – his usually neat comb-over now dishevelled by the wind. He hoped there was a decent barber in Nibelheim. But he would get to that later, he was too busy reading up on this mayor Lockheart fellow.

He was walking through the gates, past one of those new truck models everyone in Midgar had been abuzz about. Smiling at Nibelheim's surprising vogue nature. After all, it was half-way around the world from Midgar.

The three scientists were waiting for him inside the gates, and he approached them, closing the folio and lowering his arms to his sides. He made sure not to bat the hair out of his eyes – that would make him seem vain. Turks were not vain.

He reached out a hand and greeted Gast, his assistant Hojo and the woman, Lucrecia. The men's faces had been nondescript – it would be weeks before Vincent could tell them apart. But Lucrecia…

* * *

"Vincent?" Tifa called, walking to the edge of the precipice with him.

"Tiffany," he said quietly.

"The conversation is getting pretty deep in there. Cloud is wondering where you are."

"If you learn anything pertaining to Hojo, please inform me. If not, I am uninterested."

Tifa's brow furrowed. "Still a one-track mind? Sorry, stupid me, I guess I thought you cared about the Planet for a moment."

He turned to her, looking her over with his red eyes. His twitching mouth hidden behind the collar of his cape. "Please go," he said, "The party needs you."

She turned and re-entered the ant-hill cliffs. He looked at where she had gone for a moment. What use was sitting around debating? What could he possibly contribute? You give nothing to nothing, he sighed. It was better to stand here in the warm breeze and think things over.

* * *

"Lucrecia Crescent," she gingerly and professionally shook his hand, and their brown eyes met. For a moment, the disinterested, pleasant smile was wiped from her face – as if slapped. Vincent reached out his right hand and took hers, shaking it formally.

"Vincent Valentine," he said, "I am the Turk that you requested."

"Yes," the man who he would later know as Professor Gast (and even later, just Faremis) smiled and laid a strong hand on his shoulder in a welcome fashion. "We are fast approaching scientific breakthroughs that are monumental. In the following months you will be able to watch history unfold. Because of the enormity of our discoveries, our research has been getting sceptical feedback from numerous fanatical groups."

They walked through town together – Gast and Vincent led the way as the other two scientists trailed behind. Vincent swore he could feel Professor Crescent's eyes on him.

"We have taken up lodgings in the old Shinra mansion, that is where our experiments are being conducted. Your first task is to be our bodyguards when we're in town – for precaution's sake we'll need someone of your skill to ensure our safety in open spaces. Your secondary job would be to secure the mansion and prevent trespassers from interfering with our research."

"I have been sent files on the townsfolk here," Vincent gazed at a group of children playing near the water tower as they passed, "but I will need a few weeks to screen them for possible fanatics."

"No need to be so formal," Gast laughed, "we don't have reason to suspect anyone of foul plots, so enjoy yourself. Get to know people. This will be your home for the next few years."

Vincent hummed curtly.

"All business, I suppose," Gast sighed, "I heard that the Turks were like that. I suppose that kind of discipline is what makes you the most elite force the Planet has ever seen so far."

Another hum from Vincent, but this time a humoured one. "'So far,'" he repeated. "Words of a scientist."

"Normally, yes..." Gast smiled, "In time, you'll come to understand the nature of our work – if our theories are correct, this experiment will affect everything – including your job. Our way of life as we know it will change. It's terribly exciting. You may stay in the Shinra mansion; there is a room in the west wing that will accommodate you nicely. It is important for you to be familiar with the hidden entrance to the laboratory, but—"

"I have already been instructed not to enter. You don't have to worry about that, Professor Gast. I am not interested in your research, only that you are safe while conducting it."

* * *

With a calm gentleness, like falling asleep, Vincent stepped over the edge and tumbled into the open air. His hair blew in his face and he could not see the chasm wall rushing past him. He could feel his cape whipping up behind him as he tumbled. His bronze arm collided with a rocky protrusion and he smashed right through it – spraying dust onto his clothes and in his hair. He fell.

He _had_ become interested in their research, all those years ago. Because he had become interested in Lucrecia. It had begun with their daily walks through Nibelheim while the men stayed hidden in the secret laboratory. She was the intrusive type, and pestered him until he opened up to her. She, in turn, opened up to him, and by the first month they had a keen understanding of each other. His days were filled with her breaks, and they were talking and laughing, his nights were filled with her visits to his room in the west wing.

And he was falling.

He went to the string of markets only once – to a goldsmith. He had been handsomely paid for this assignment, and these were the days when one gil actually meant something. Fifteen hundred paid handsomely for a gorgeous band of gold and a velvet crimson box to put it in.

As they walked through town the next day, hand in hand, he presented it to her. And she ran. She ran from him. And he was falling.

She kept quiet during her next trip through the town, and as he escorted her he felt the awkwardness. He saw something in her eyes – a kind of mournful desperation when looking at him. There used to be a bright, full-lit look but it was clear she was distancing herself from him deliberately. It was falling apart, and he was falling harder.

He heard that she had started becoming closer to Professor Hojo. He was unsure. It shattered him. Seeing her interact so warmly around Professor Gast also filled him with rage. At times it became so uncontrollable that he would have to lock himself in his room and throw things.

Sometimes the anger became so immense that he would tremble for almost an hour after screaming at the wall, and he would go to bed shaking, waking up sore. Months went by like this.

He began to take a real interest in the research when he saw Lucrecia begin to change physically. At first she looked pale, she threw up in the mornings and felt faint at several points throughout the day. When Gast began to take her place for daily outings, Vincent questioned him.

"Lucrecia is responding negatively to the testing today," Gast had said, "It breaks my heart to see her like that. But she is responding much better than previous subjects."

"Faremis!" Vincent shouted, losing his temper, "What are you doing down there? Why experiment on humans?"

"She is a scientist. She knows the dangers involved. Would you rather test on animals?"

"Yes!" Vincent protested, "I do not know what your research is about, but she is ill! I would much rather sacrifice an animal to science than another human life!"

"And that comes from your assumption that a human life is worth more than any other kind of life," Gast said calmly as they walked back through the gates into the mansion's front garden. "Lucrecia and I are like-minded. She believes that all life is equal, and that the wisest course of action in an experiment so delicate is to have a subject who can fully comprehend the results. When the child is old enough, of course, he will."

Vincent stopped in his tracks. Gast was opening the large double doors of the mansion but halted and looked back at him. Vincent stood in shock. "What child?"

"Lucrecia's child. She isn't the subject of the experiment, her unborn baby is."

There was a momentary pause, until Vincent said, "I need to know what you are doing down in the basement."

* * *

The wind blew his raven-coloured hair out of his eyes and he stared at the ground rushing up to meet him. It was still far away – another minute or so before he would stop falling. Enough time to think about the Jenova Project a little more.

The scientists had gathered Vincent in the office – Lucrecia was cuddling up to one of them, and looked at Vincent now with something of contempt. He was inexplicably hurt by her gaze.

"We have found a perfectly preserved Ancient frozen in ice," Gast began. "Upon studying it, we learned that it was emitting a powerful magical energy, but that due to the circumstances of its freezing, thawing it did not revive its conscious mind. We've issued a slave crown to her – so that if she awakes, she will be unable to do anything other than what we bid. Her level of magic is unstable in its might. Our theory is this: if there are Ancient blood cells in the human body, the human host will begin to acquire the natural magical prowess that we see with our Ancient friend. Think about it: humans who have the ability to use magic!"

Hojo snorted at the word 'magic,' but Gast pressed on. "Imbuing humans with the ability to utilize materia crystals will change the way the world works. Instead of developing faster cars and bigger boats, we will have the power of flight to carry us places."

Vincent stood facing them, his tall, rail thin figure cast shadows over them, but he felt powerless. Some of the words meant nothing to him. 'Materia,' 'Ancient,' 'Magic.' All he cared about was the way that Lucrecia was looking at him.

"Unfortunately," Gast continued, "the first humans who volunteered for the experiment perished – the cells reacted poorly in their systems. After so many years, the addition of new DNA gave their systems a shock and they died. This is why we have a new approach – to imbue an embryo with Ancient cells."

"And Lucrecia," Vincent started, "You agreed to this?"

"It is my child, I will do what I believe to be necessary." The voice was cold and distant.

And he felt like he was falling.

Vincent waited for the curt reply to cease echoing down the halls before turning back to Gast. "How is this experiment affecting Lucrecia right now?"

"We have been giving Lucrecia doses of mako as well, which seems to be accomplishing a diminutive version of our overall goal. Not only has it made her far more compatible for Jenova's cells, she also seems to be experiencing an infused genetic makeover. It's not changing, but her DNA seems to be opening up to the metaphysical world, due to just mako!"

Was that why she looked so pale? Why, despite the fact that her eyes seemed to glow more than ever, they looked dead inside? Were they planning on performing this experiment on everyone?

It was all he learned of the Jenova Project. He kept to himself after that, not meaning to speak with the scientists any longer. He overheard Gast and Hojo talking. Gast suggested the name 'Aeris' if it was a girl, and Hojo was certain it was to be a boy, and they would name him 'Sephiroth.'

* * *

Months later, Lucrecia's belly was full and Vincent saw her moving towards the secret entrance to the laboratory – the stone wall in the bedroom.

"Lucrecia!" he shouted.

"No, Vincent, no!" she cried, and ran through the door. He chased after her, finding himself on a long staircase that spiralled down, hugging the cylindrical wall until far below the earth, into some underground tunnel. He saw Lucrecia making her way down the stairs as fast as she could.

"Who is the father, Lucrecia?" he shouted after her.

She was nearly at the bottom when she fell. She broke her water on her run down and slipped on it, tumbling down the last few steps. She lay on her back in the dirt.

And he was falling, too.

He leapt down the rest of the way, landing hard and tumbling to her side. He shook his head to quickly orient himself again and looked into her glowing brown eyes. She looked at him with that same mournful desperation she had given him after the apex of their love. She looked down at her stomach and Vincent moved down. He put his hands out as the head of the baby began to emerge. Lucrecia began a quick scream, but it ended in a gasp. She stopped moving altogether.

Vincent grabbed the child by the head and pulled the rest of him out. There was a moment when Vincent was worried that the child would be stillborn – its head was purple for the first few seconds. After those few seconds, though, there was a nearly audible popping noise as blood rushed to all corners of the child's form, and his skin became the most remarkable pale. With little wrinkled slits for eyes, the baby looked up from Vincent's arms, up past the spiralling staircase and through the open shaft into the sky, staring at the stars beyond.

Baby Sephiroth, cradled in Vincent's arms, began to cry. Thirty years later, Vincent would reflect on that moment, at how simple it would have been to gently strangle the baby. To tie the umbilical cord around his neck and just wait for it to stop crying. He hadn't, however. He had never been able to do anything during his time there. He hadn't interfered, he hadn't said a word in months. Holding this child, he realized that the only thing they had let him do, the only thing he was capable of doing, was watching. He examined the child, wiped the blood and placenta away from his nose and mouth and eyes, and placed him on top of his mother.

Lucrecia was not moving. Vincent could only watch her, feeling the most useless he had ever felt. His hands grabbed the dirt around her and the dust stuck to the blood that drenched his arms.

There was a noise from behind him and he looked. There was a long, dark tunnel with an open door. The laboratory! Vincent sprang up and ran towards them. Faremis Gast would be there, Faremis could help!

Vincent ran into the library. Gast wasn't there. Instead, his assistant turned, startled, towards the door.

"You can't be in here!" Hojo cried, reaching for a gun.

"Lucrecia has had the baby, you bastard!" Vincent said, his anger uncontrollably rising to the surface, "She's not moving! You've killed her oh you son of a bitch!"

Hojo grabbed at his hair and pulled at it. For a minute, Vincent really believed he had reached the man. Hojo stopped suddenly and there was a cold rush that shivered through both of them. Hojo picked up the gun with a calm resolve and fired.

Somehow, Vincent hadn't expected the confrontation to end so soon. He felt the bullet enter his belly and could almost feel the lead pumping through him, causing all of his organs to seize up. He began to collapse.

He was falling.

Hojo walked towards him, chuckling to himself. "Temper, temper," he put the gun down on the desk and knelt down beside Vincent, who lay on the ground. The dirt was now clinging to the blood pouring out of him – some of it was getting pumped through his system. "I thought the Turks had a better handle on their emotions. Well, Mr. Valentine. This is a dilemma, isn't it? I suppose I could do the humane thing and kill you… or I could use you as a new test subject. I will decide once I deal with the child." Hojo stepped over Vincent's bleeding body. "Don't go anywhere!" he laughed.

But Vincent was falling.

* * *

The ground rushed up towards him, and Vincent began to slow down, softening his fall. This ability that he had to control gravity's hold on him – it was a result of the experiments that Hojo had performed on him.

He slowed to a near stop, pointing his toes to land gently at the bottom of the chasm. He stood looking up. His memories of the experimentation were distorted and nonsensical. He remembers being in a tube, filled with green liquid. He remembers lying on a cold metal table, with Hojo leaning over him. And where is Professor Gast? And where oh where is _Lucrecia_?!

He remembers seeing the form that Jenova had taken during their project – a beautiful woman with the abyss for eyes, white hair and eyes for nipples. He doesn't remember when his arm turned from flesh to bronze – a result of crude alchemy. He remembers, near the end, of watching Hojo approach him with red orbs. Materia.

A galian beast. A death gigas. A hell masker. All serving Chaos.

Yes, after that day, that was when he stopped being himself, and started being a vessel for something far more sinister. Ready at the first sign of trouble, first sign of anger – a hair-trigger away for Vincent.

He remembers being in chains as his body went through horrible transformations. As Hojo implanted the creatures from the materia into Vincent's mind. As he became a walking materia bomb.

"This body," he said aloud, and his voice echoed enormously throughout the desolate chasm. "This body is my punishment. I was unable to stop Professor Gast and Professor Hojo. I was unable to stop Lucrecia. I was only able to watch. That is my punishment."


	132. Book 5: Unforgotten

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V  
**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 25**

**Unforgotten**

"What to do?" Bugenhagen surveyed them through his silver spectacles. "Have you lost your way? When that happens we each have to take a good long look at ourselves."

The machine wasn't turned on, and dim light had flooded the room, illuminating the outlines of everyone in the room – but details were lost. Cid leaned against the corner of the dark orrery, arms crossed – he was nodding off. Tifa was standing by the door (she had just re-entered) beside Cait Sith. Barret and Yuffie stood together along the wall. Cloud and Nanaki were right up front, eager to learn what Bugenhagen could teach them.

The old man said, "There's always something in the deepest reaches of our hearts. Something buried, or something forgotten. Remember it! Whatever that is, must certainly be what you are all looking for."

"That's easy enough to say," Cloud said, "but I can't remember a thing."

"It must be there. Look harder!"

"Nope," Cait Saith piped up from the back of the room, and beside him, Cid lifted his head for a moment groggily before it dipped back down. "Can't come up with a thing."

Cloud looked around the room at his friends, all collected together and in deep thought. He counted too few. Where was Vincent? Where was Aeris?

"I think about Aeris a lot," Cloud said automatically, still looking around the room for Vincent. He was clearly not with them, so Cloud returned to trying to think about what to think about.

"You may have something there," Bugenhagen hummed, "Don't throw away an idea so quickly. Aeris was your Cetra friend, correct?"

_'Great,'_ Cloud thought, _'this is the last thing I want to talk about.'_

"Yeah, she was."

Bugenhagen hummed. "She must have had some significance."

"She did," Cloud said, "But I can't remember."

"No." The joy in Bugenhagen's voice was gone. He had stated it somewhat sharply. "No," he repeated, "You haven't remembered, but you haven't forgotten either. You never knew."

Bugenhagen tipped his head forward so that his beady eyes gazed at Cloud overtop of his spectacles – as if he was expecting Cloud to understand what he was getting at. Cloud felt patronized, and fell back into silence. He would rather keep his thoughts of Aeris to himself. Talking about them seemed to emphasize her absence.

Nanaki, not having the slightest clue what Cloud was thinking, continued. "Aeris used to pat me on the nose sometimes. I used to hate being treated like a child like that, but I also liked the attention. I wanted to apologize to her for what I did when we first met."

"I told Elmyra," Cait Sith said, the robotic voice sounded solemn.

Tifa looked up. "What of it?"

"…She cried," said the cat, "So did Marlene."

Barret huffed quickly. "Damn. And Aeris… Guess she turned into spirit energy and returned to the Planet, huh? There's no way we'll meet her again."

Cloud sighed, "Aeris was right there all along. Right there by our side. So close we couldn't see her. What Aeris did… the words she left behind…" He couldn't articulate it.

Words of agreement rose throughout the room. Tifa, Nanaki and Barret assured Cloud that they felt the same.

Cloud's eyelids felt heavy, like they wanted to close and stop talking about this. _'If I want to sleep,' _he told himself,_ 'and escape this, then it _must_ be important. But why?'_

"She said she was the only one who could stop Sephiroth's Meteor. She talked about the future more that any of us."

Tifa spoke out, "But Aeris is gone."

"Is there no way…" Nanaki started, but when all heads turned towards him, he took a nervous step back towards the wall. "No way for us to carry on… what Aeris tried to accomplish?"

"We ain't Ancients," Barret objected, "If that's what you mean."

"I don't get it," Cid yawned sleepily. "We didn't know shit-one about what Aeris was doing there, so why are we wasting our time obsessing over it?"

This was met with bouts of contempt from all across the board. Yuffie stomped her foot angrily, "Well maybe we'd take your opinion more seriously if you didn't sleep through everything!"

Tifa was right beside her. "If you don't want to think about solutions, then why don't you just help Meteor along?"

Barret was shouting "Don't be rude!" and Nanaki was growling somewhere deep in his throat.

"You're just as bad as the Shinra!" came the robotic voice of Cait Sith.

Suddenly, Cloud's strong voice cut through the bedlam, so clearly that it silenced everyone mid-sentence, even mid-word.

"That's it!" he cried happily.

All noises stopped, and all eyes turned to him. He stood before them, a new glimmer in his eyes to match the mako glow. It was as if someone had turned on a light-bulb behind them.

"We don't know about it," he said. All eyes were on him intently, but he saw that none of them had reached the conclusion he had yet. "Think, everyone! What did Aeris know? Why did she face Sephiroth without running away? Why did she face him alone?"

Nanaki began to nod his head slowly, in understanding. "We never set out to learn. We were too hasty, our minds filled with thoughts of revenge – Jenova's call was too strong. Since then we've been lost… you intend to return to that place."

"The Forgotten City," Tifa murmured, "yes, the answers might be there."

Bugenhagen hummed in his usual cheery way again. He floated around them, his arms waving pleasantly. "Perhaps I'll have you take me there."

Nanaki turned sharply. "You're going too?"

Bugenhagen smiled. "What's so surprising about that? Even I want to go out and see the world from time to time."

Vincent breezed in through the door, striding past Cid into the room. "I am ready to go."

"We are too," Cloud smiled faintly – but with determination. "We're heading to the City of the Ancients."

Vincent hummed his dark laughter. "I will make sure to pack something warm." He turned smoothly, as if walking in and out of the room had been one deliberate, fluid motion. The others began to file out behind him.

"Bugenhagen," Cloud called, and the old man floated towards him, hooting cheerfully. "There's one more thing I wanted to ask you. We're carrying around this huge materia. It's pretty delicate stuff, and we want to keep it in a… safe place."

"Ho ho hoo! Yes my boy. You are welcome to leave them here in my orrery."

* * *

After the crew of the _Highwind_ had properly transported the yellow and red crystals into the bowels of Cosmo Canyon, Bugenhagen floated aboard with no need for a ladder. Cloud watched on as the yellow stone disappeared inside of on of their tunnels – and then the red one after it.

_'Goodbye Chaos,'_ he breathed a little easier.

Bugenhagen hummed. "It smells like machinery."

The crew had left the passenger deck and were descending towards the bridge. Cloud was alone with the old man and he turned to him, knowing that the huge materia were safely hidden (for the moment).

"Machinery," Cloud nodded.

"I love this smell," Bugenhagen smiled, and his long white moustache quivered. "Of course, I also love the smell of nature, too. I think I will stay on this deck, just passing the time. I can feel the workings of the Planet in the smell of the wind. I also feel the wisdom and greatness of man's creation in the smell of machinery."

"Bugenhagen," Cloud began, "Your history with Shinra…"

"Hm, yes," the old man gave him a thoughtful glance, "Nothing slips by you folk."

Cloud was unsure if there was sarcasm in his voice, but – looking back on his history of gaping wonder at Bugenhagen's every word – he didn't think Bugenhagen had put much value on his intellect. The mercenary seemed too brutish for that. Still, their team had a knack for collecting knowledge.

"I worked for Shinra," Bugenhagen said as the propellers on the _Highwind_ sped up their silent rotations as the ropes were drawn on deck. The noise of the wind generated by the propellers was quite loud, but Cloud could still hear Bugenhagen. "A long time ago. I was on the original design team for Midgar."

"Fifty years ago. So you are an Orunai?"

Bugenhagen laughed. "Ho ho, goodness no. I was only in my fifties back then. You're young and were raised in a society that believes that the mind withers after thirty. Why, when I stumbled upon Cosmo Canyon at fifty, I knew very little about the studies of Planet life. My colleagues and I learned much from the elders there, and I tried to bring wind power to Midgar instead of mako power. Thus ended my career with Shinra. And since then, from what humble beginnings! I have become the Grand Elder. You see, Cloud. We are constantly wishing that we had the span of two lifetimes to accomplish all we wanted. One lifetime is plenty, but a single year need not be wasted. This is why I am here with you. I have seen a century's worth of the world, and yet there is more for me to do, to learn, to discover. The wind in my face is invigorating."

Cloud smiled, and they bid farewell for the moment. As Cloud walked in from the cold air, gloved hand sliding along the rail as he descended the staircase towards L1, he doubted what Bugenhagen had said. He had come with them to see the world again, yes. But he had grown frailer since their last visit with him – almost emaciated. This wasn't a new adventure for the old man – that was one thing that _hadn't_ slipped by the brute. Bugenhagen was saying goodbye.

* * *

Tifa walked up the stairs towards the ballroom. Moments of solitude were more bearable when her friends were mere seconds away. She stole away to the loneliness of the ballroom, finding comfort in the gorgeous black thing that lived there.

She opened the door to the ballroom and nearly cried out in fright. Vincent paced underneath the crystal chandelier, hands loping along at his sides. It was like watching a tree walk. He turned to look at her. He didn't say anything, which was even more unsettling.

"I thought I was the only person who came here," she said.

"Should I leave?"

"No, no. You can stay." She walked towards the piano, not looking at him. "So you haven't finished brooding I see."

"Brooding. That is a word Yuffie would use."

"Well, sometimes she's right. Have you made a decision yet about the Planet?"

"Your path and Hojo's path are bound. I have no doubt we'll meet him before the end."

"You two better pick up the pace. Cid's rocket reached Meteor in only two days. If Meteor is still crawling at a beachplug's pace, it'll get here in a few weeks – tops." She reached the piano, but suddenly no longer had the urge to sit down. "What are you going to do when you find him, anyway?"

"I am going to kill him once he is found, and end this once and for all."

"You sound like Cloud."

"I like Cloud."

"You don't think there's an easier way to forgive yourself? Jumping off a cliff didn't do it for you?"

Vincent had wondered if she had been watching. He had thought true. "My years of hibernation, and my moments alone give me time to reflect and atone. But the only true salvation lies here."

His hand slid up his thigh and rested on the holster of his pistol, tapping it a few times as he would a pet. Tifa shook her head. "If I ever found Sephiroth, I would kill him myself. I would use these hands."

"You do not wish for Cloud to have the vengeance he seeks?"

"Well… we would do it together."

"I see. Have you come to play music?"

The change in topic was so sudden, Tifa needed a moment to realize what he was talking about. She looked down at the piano. "Yes."

Vincent hummed. "It is said that in tumultuous times, art is the only thing that keeps one sane. I have never been skilled at it; I was bred and trained to kill. But I understand the notion of creation as a grounding tool. It was your music that roused me from my long reverie."

"Aeris forced me to play in the basement," Tifa remembered.

Another hum. "Yes, she was always a catalyst for fellowship. Would you prefer solitude while you play?"

"Not at all," Tifa's nimble fingers flipped up the lid of the piano and she began with the same scale/arpeggio hybrid she had used since childhood, finding a key she liked and a familiar melody. With an audience, she didn't allow herself to escape into the music – her goal in coming to this lonely hall.

She added a melody. This song reminded her of Cloud. It flowed so effortlessly from the scale, morphing into a slight variation, the melody bounced slowly back and forth on one octave, and her left hand twirled about the bass clef, dancing freely on the chords. The melody itself was about as versatile as melodies could be – it existed in an old songbook she had in Nibelheim. She used to play a game where she would pick a style of music and play the melody in that style. Marching band, lounge music and victory fanfare style were all strangely fitting, but her favourite had always been slow and light – like Cloud had been. Cloud who had gone off to join SOLDIER. Now that she was older, she recognized the mournful quality of the melody when played this way. When it was slow and light, she could see his eyes.

He had almost not spoken to her since his return. After something as intimate as a meeting of the minds, he seemed more distant than ever. As if sharing all of his secrets for her had scared him away, or planted some seed of spite towards her for outing him.

Or perhaps it was simpler than that... She had always been a catalyst for fellowship, hadn't she? And everyone had been her best friend. How is it possible that she was able to convince everyone that they were hers as well? How does a person have that much energy to give to people? Even posthumously, she had them all still under her spell. Tifa too – she loved her and it pained her that she could not blame her. The thoughts were there, but the love prevented those wicked thoughts from gaining any validity or substance. Instead, there was nothing to blame but herself.

Vincent stood there, calmly watching her.

"Say something," Tifa looked up from her hands at him – the music continued; her hands knew it too well.

"I've heard this song before. It was an old traveling song. In my time, it was simply whistled – and happily. I have not heard this version."

"Oh this? I'm just playing with the old melody."

She didn't realize she was fishing for a compliment until he didn't give her one. Instead, he gave her a quick, polite bow and strode across the hall through the great, ornate oak doors.

After they slowly closed, she beat her fists against the eledunk ivory and let the tears fall from her eyes and onto the black keys.


	133. Book 5: Holy

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 26  
**

**Holy**

The shrine looked surprisingly like the mako fountain in Nibelheim – the one that dried up and produced one of Shinra's coveted huge materia. Like most things in the Forgotten City, it was as if the Planet had been inspired to mould itself into a large oval amphitheatre with arched openings like pores in coral reef. The shrine was in the exact middle of the amphitheatre, suspended above the rocky ground by something Cloud could only describe as a stone branch – it appeared to be a clay protrusion coming from one of the oval structure's majestic old walls near a naturally formed staircase leading up to it from their agape position.

Bugenhagen cheated and simply floated up to the saucer-like plateau suspended above them. Cloud used the stairs, calling all channels on his PHS. "I think we've found it," he said, and gave directions to the amphitheatre from the_ Highwind_. A few moments later, Dearness crackled through.

"I'm, uh, going to assume you didn't mean us."

Cloud didn't bother to respond, but Yuffie would have a good laugh about it when she met up with him later. But Cloud and Bugenhagen would be done their business there before anyone could reach them.

"Yes," Bugenhagen bumbled, "This is something."

Cloud reached the top of the stairs and stood on the wide stone walkway leading up to the shrine. Bugenhagen had spoken true – it was _something_, all right. When Cloud stepped onto the centre platform, he was beside a bright sprout of a red dwarf tree – leafless in the northern cold. He could feel a slight magic tug coming from the branches. It wasn't surprising, because he could also see the magic sluicing out from their tips. Small tendrils of light flushed from every end of the gnarled red brier, floating upwards towards a centre-point. The bines of magical energy merged and glowed fiercely at the top of a pyramid of light.

Around the base of the tree were ancient runes. Several rings of them were carved into the stone. Between the rings of writing in certain places was an almost illegible scrawl of Common. Fractions of sentences and phrases were etched into the stone crudely, as if with fingernails.

Bugenhagen's head was reared back and his mouth was slightly moving.

"Are you getting something?" Cloud asked.

"Give me a moment," Bugenhagen looked at the pyramid of light sitting atop the red dwarf tree. He was interpreting the sounds of the Planet, Cloud assumed, just as Aeris had in the Temple of the Ancients.

_'How do you do it?'_ he wondered. _'How do you make sense of what the Planet is doing or saying? With Aeris, it was plausible… she was of the same ilk. Bugenhagen is old, sure, but he's a human. Not even an Orunai. And he said himself that the Planet isn't a god. It's not a guiding force. It just is. How can you interpret what it's saying?'_

He recalled first hearing the Planet's scream, and Bugenhagen telling them it was as if the Planet was crying out "I hurt. I suffer." That, Cloud could have figured out on his own. But this shrine, this place. It was indecipherable.

"The knowledge of the Ancients swirling around me is telling me one thing," Bugenhagen finally said. "The Planet's in a crisis. A crisis beyond human power or endless time. It says, when the time comes, we must search for 'Holy.'"

"Holy?"

Bugenhagen nodded. "Holy... the ultimate white magic. Magic that might stand against Meteor. Perhaps our last hope to save the Planet. If a soul seeking Holy reaches the Planet, it will appear."

Bugenhagen seemed to bounce mid-air, suddenly rising and falling while giving a cheerful hoot. "Meteor, Weapon, everything will disappear." Then, he floated close to Cloud and leaned in conspiratorially, as if he didn't want the shrine to hear. "Perhaps even ourselves."

"Even us?!" Cloud asked.

Bugenhagen floated back away from them and turned towards the shrine again, floating in an orbit around it. "It is up for the Planet to decide," he said breathily, as if he was only channelling what was coming to him. "Holy will decide what's best for it, and what is bad for it. Everything bad will disappear. That is all." As if coming out of his trance, Bugenhagen hooted again. "I wonder which we humans are?"

Cloud couldn't bring himself to look at the shrine any longer. He instead looked down off their platform to the scabrous ground below and the majestic, rock-ribbed walls of the ancient amphitheatre.

It made sense that Meteor – that a spell so dark it would wipe out all corporeal life – had an antithesis. That the apocalypse had an opposite – but if humans could be wiped out either way, was there even a point? Cloud hesitated (but not for long) when answering that question to himself.

"How do I find Holy?" He hoped that Bugenhagen would tell him something other than what he was thinking.

"Hoo, hoo! The Planet isn't dictating a briefing. It is simply saying that it is in dire need, and that Holy must be found to cure it of its suffering. We as humans, however, can decipher this on our own."

Bugenhagen underestimated Cloud's powers of deduction. He had a military mind, and had reached the end of this conversation before Bugenhagen could molly-coddle him towards the answer. But he was still silent – there was no more need to talk, because Cloud already knew things that Bugenhagen didn't – things that dispelled the old man's hopeful notion of a saving grace. Bugenhagen mistook this silence for feeble-mindedness.

"Think, Cloud. How did Sephiroth summon Meteor?"

"He used the Black Materia," came a slow dragging response.

"Yes!" Bugenhagen chirped, as if teaching a child simple math. "As a non-Cetra, he required the materia to link him to the Planet's flowing spirit. It would stand to reason that a White Materia exists somewhere that can link us to the Planet to call forth Holy."

"I know."

"…You know?"

"Yes, Bugenhagen… it's over. We're finished."

Bugenhagen's initial shock faded away into concern. "How are you sure?"

"Aeris had the White Materia. When she died, it fell from the altar into the water… this is the end."

The two men gazed at the pyramid of light for a while, saying nothing. Cloud felt equal parts satisfied and terrified knowing that Bugenhagen was as stumped as he was.

"Perhaps," the old man said, "these runes mean something."

Cloud knelt down to inspect the ancient writing. It was mostly strange lines and glyphs. Cloud inspected the scratched translation, however.

**Where sunlight can't reach**

it read, and also the word:

**key.**

"Elder Bugenhagen," Cloud asked, "Are there any more scratched translations around here?"

"Interesting discovery," Bugenhagen said. "I wonder where they are from. Even your friend Aeris couldn't read or translate the Cetra language. It must have been some knowledgeable anthropologist, or – if we can create a new term – a cetrasophist."

"Enough with new words," Cloud tried to make out the words in between 'reach' and 'key'. "Let's try and look at old ones, can we please?"

Bugenhagen hummed. "There are other words and sentences, but most of them seem to be worn into almost nothingness. They've obviously been written decades ago. I will do what I can. What can you make out?"

"'Where sunlight can't reach,'" Cloud read, "and then 'key.'"

"Without the rest of the translation, it is a riddle indeed, ho hoo!"

"My first guess was that the words directed us to the white materia. But that can't be right, these are years old."

"Do not underestimate the Cetra; they could have very well scribed with magic quills."

"Yeah, but I'm betting this scientist didn't." At this point in time, Cloud would have retreated back into his thoughts to suss out the riddle. But there was an urgency to get out whatever he was thinking. This was partly because he trusted Bugenhagen to steer him in the right path, and partly because he wanted to prove himself to the old man. "The shrine has something to do with Holy and the white materia… or else why would it send those messages to you… maybe the light on this tree, uh, has something to do with it… but the words here aren't about Holy at all – they are about the shrine. It's locked, isn't it? And we have to find the key to open it."

"Good." Bugenhagen said.

"And the key is in a place where..." Cloud frantically grabbed for his PHS. "Dearness, are you there?"

"This is _The Wandering Tide_," the voice through the PHS – from underwater, was crepitated.

"Is there a map of the ocean floor somewhere on the ship?"

"Are you kidding?" Dearness laughed (it was crinkled) "This submarine was built by Shinra, not Corel Toys Inc."

"I'll take that for a 'yes.'" Cloud explained what they were looking for as clearly as he could. As the other members of AVALANCHE dwindled into the amphitheatre, they too were listening to the PHS. Will Bleer on the _Highwind_ too, probably.

Cloud wasn't expecting a hopeful response at all. He ended with "does anything spring to mind?" and put down the PHS. He looked over the edge of the stone belvedere, down at his friends with their heads all tilted back and craning up to look at him.

"Our business here is done," Cloud called down. This was met with a few grunts from panting party members. Cloud began down the staircase.

"As a matter of fact," crackled Dearness's voice, "something does."

* * *

Alphaeus Dearness had been a plate-dweller, through and through. Sector 8 hadn't been heavily residential – it had been a mostly commercial area, which was exactly why Dearness liked it. Sure, simply living there ate up most of his hefty Shinra cheques (he joined the corps at fifteen, moved out and into west Sector 8 at sixteen) but just being in the middle of it all was worth staying barely out of the red. That had changed when he was transferred to Junon, but he still got a cozy ocean view high on the plate (two tiers above the Grand Path). Even when he was sent on submarine missions, he still came home to his life high above.

Recently, however the only sky he saw was lugging a huge red rock to the surface; of painting a sloppy logo on the hood of the submarine. He missed the Junon sun and wind. He even missed Midgar's goddamn green-lit cloud cover.

Balto Bath (although he would like to forget the unfortunate circumstance of his name) was born in Corel, but had left a decade ago to join the corps in Junon. Would rather die quick with a bullet or sword than die slowly in the mines, he said. Didn't think he would die under the ocean.

The constant hum of the submarine was comforting – it reminded Dearness of the old sounds of Midgar. Bath had gotten used to it the last few days, although it had been irksome at first. Everything had been irksome at first. There were no windows – the glass would have buckled under the pressure (Shinra had lost many boats to that mistake before someone found Cid's old engineering notes). They couldn't look out onto the ocean, so they had taken to looking at each other.

They were poring over a wall map of the ocean floor – which was to say paper with lines scrawled around like rings of a tree, each line with a different number representing its elevation. The data collected from radar. Bath lamented privately the lack of colour on the page, which he thought made the map jumbled and confusing.

Dearness was talking into the PHS. "It looks here like there is an underwater tunnel that goes inland underneath the Corel desert. Mostly unexplored, but as far as it is documented here, it goes almost straight down, and underneath the continent. I don't think I could find a better match for the description."

"Time's running out," Cloud's voice came through. "We can't afford to waste it looking in the wrong places."

"I'm almost positive this is it. Everywhere else has been heavily explored; our scanners would have picked up a two thousand year old object."

"Wait a second…" Bath said. He traced his finger across the rings as the numbers increased. Five-hundred miles below surface. Six-hundred miles. Seven. There was a final ring, the centre of the tree and that only had a question mark on the line. He tapped on that area – the area of unknowable depth.

"I know this place."

"I'm listening," Cloud said.

"This place so deep… it's in the exact location that the pool is. The Crystal River has a starting point up in the mountains called the Crystal Pool. We just thought it siphoned rain water from the soil, but if I'm right, the lagoon is directly above the deepest place. We should be able to surface in the Crystal Pool, and you can meet us there."

"You caught that, Cloud?" Dearness asked.

"Yes. Will your PHS be available to talk underneath the continent?"

"I doubt it," Dearness shook his head ('_As if this's be effective over the PHS,_' he thought). "I'm surprised it works at this depth at all. Whoever made these was a genius."

"If it doesn't work, how are we supposed to know when you're coming up? …If you're coming up at all?"

Dearness and Bath looked at each other. Dearness put the PHS to his lips. "Hope, I guess."

"…All right. We'll rendez-vous at this pool at 0800 hours tomorrow morning."

"Roger that, Cloud. _Tide_ out."

Dearness put down the PHS and looked at Bath with a silly grin. Bath couldn't help but grin back. "_Tide_ out?"

They broke into laughter.


	134. Book 5: Ruby Weapon

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 27  
**

**Ruby Weapon  
**

Yuffie entered the kitchen to find two figures sitting on one of the steel ovens. If she had ever seen Tifa and Marlene interact, she would have found this scene quite familiar. Shera paid the child attention, but was still overly careful and unsure, as if Priscilla was a walking porcelain vase. Yuffie thought it was pretty funny, although she couldn't claim to do much better. The cooks were noisily making food on one of the other ovens for them, and when they saw Yuffie enter, another cook snapped to attention and began to toss more food on whatever pan they were cooking with. There was a nice aroma filling the air, kind of energizing, like the cooks were using glyphanide in their concoctions.

"I remember you," Shera smiled, pushing her glasses up atop the bridge of her nose. "Yoofy, right?"

"Yuffie, actually," she figured that a common-tongue wouldn't understand the subtle differences in pronunciation, but on Shera's second try she did all right. '_For a noobie_,' Yuffie thought. "Looks like you guys'll be toting around with us for a bit longer. Cloud and Cid have some urgent stuff they need to do before the end of the world. We'll drop you guys off somewhere safe after this one thing."

"Oh," Shera smiled, "its okay. I actually like being on the ship. It's like walking around inside of Cid's mind."

"That's weird."

Shera laughed. "I meant that it's nice to be inside of one of his successes. The layout of the ship, the design. It's all very _Cid_. I guess it's something only an engineer would understand."

"You're right about that," Yuffie leaned against a small marble counter. She turned to the child. "Whad'ya think, kiddo? Should she marry him or what?"

Priscilla nodded her head feverishly and they all had a small laugh. Shera's face flushed but she laughed anyway. She poked Priscilla, "Only after this one marries our fearless leader."

"Got it on for Cloud, eh kid?" Yuffie asked with a smirk. Priscilla looked around the kitchen sheepishly, and nodded quickly. More laughter. Laughing felt good. Yuffie looked at the two of them. "We'll have a joint wedding. It'll be like the end of a fairy tale."

"Wait," Priscilla asked, "Who are you gonna marry?"

Yuffie's laughter halted. Shera's laughter rolled away seconds after – long enough for Yuffie to get worried by the question. "No one," she finally said. "I'm happy by myself."

The cooks gave them each a plate of heaping food. "Might as well get fat for Meteor!" one of the cooks said. Yuffie took the plate and thanked Leviathan for the good timing. She waved goodbye to the guests ('_refugees'_) and returned to her room.

No one to marry. No one to take the role of king. No one in Wutai who was worth a damn. No one outside of Wutai who was allowed to touch it. Not her Wutai. The people of Wutai would sooner bow to a foreign leader than take only a queen. She couldn't allow that. She understood her kingdom more than the people who lived there, she thought. She saw it for what it was, a place of honour and dignity. Not a place ravaged, _raped_ by evil. They were so used to living in its shame that they had forgotten its repute.

It was like Cloud had said. They were so close to it, they couldn't even see it. Except, in the case of Wutai, the 'it' was disgrace. They deserved better than that. Her parents deserved better. Yuffie would bring it to them whether they wanted it or not. And she would bring it alone.

That was the end of her fairy tale. Everyone becomes kings and queens and lives happily ever after.

"Until the revolution," she smirked to herself, and took her first bite of food all day.

* * *

Cloud stared out of the bridge's glass wall down at the ruins of North Corel. He was the only one to have not seen them yet. Barret stood at his side, but Cloud said nothing. When it came to Corel, he knew that it was best to leave Barret alone.

The skies were clear and ahead they saw the Gold Saucer, standing like an enormous golden mushroom thicket out of the desert, all sprouting from a single golden stem. In the daylight – and from this distance – it was a horribly ugly thing. Cloud looked away after a few seconds. He didn't even look long enough to register that something was amiss. The _Highwind_ turned to the west, towards the mountains. Cloud could see where the soft brown of Corel's sloping mountains turned into the ashen gray of the Nibel mountains. The change was sudden, as if the Planet had drawn a borderline before humans appeared – as if it had predicted the separation of the two neighbouring lands.

His mind drifted to just how old the mountains were. Had knights – human knights – fought on those mountain borders? When there had been kingdoms? Before science abolished the old order?

"There," Cid growled. "To the south."

Will Bleer was confident at the wheel now, and he eased the _Highwind_ back towards the south. Cid continued to growl, although it was about as friendly as he could get when training Bleer.

"See that geyser popping out of that mountain top? That one straight ahead you fucking numbskull. It looks like a water volcano. Get there, I think that's our shit."

"Yes, sir," Bleer said, although he didn't move the wheel at all. He had been doing the right thing before Cid had yelled at him. Cloud smirked. He understood the relationship between peon and superior quite well. Resentment is always overshadowed by respect. More so if you love what you do.

Although, in Cloud's case, resentment won in the end. But those were special circumstances.

The ship passed over the mountaintop with the water gushing from it and came upon a gorgeous sight. The water coming from atop the mountain rushed down the steep mountainside in glorious waterfalls, eventually entering a pool as large as a town.

The water in the pool was strange to look at. It was round and mostly calm, but it gave Cloud the feeling of watching a boiling pot. The water didn't bubble to the surface. It seemed, however, to continually rise, as if pumped slowly up from whatever place led it there. It did this slowly, and from the centre-point only. Like a dying fountain.

From the pool, an enormous river flowed graciously ahead of them to the south. It cascaded down and joined up with the Crystal River – no, it fed into it.

"I don't see any landing points near the pool," Bleer announced.

He was right. There was enough room for to walk, sure, but if the Highwind got close enough to drop the ladder on it, the ship would crash into the surrounding mountaintops.

"That would be a dilemma," Cid smirked, "If we weren't a bunch of powerful badasses. Someone get Yuffie to ease our jump, will ya? We're goin in."

* * *

Yuffie jumped from the passenger deck first. Vincent jumped at the same time. At first, the party was shocked. Yuffie could only use her float spell on one person at a time – anything else and it wouldn't be effective enough. As Vincent fell after her, they were worried at once, and then they remembered his strange, intrinsic ability to control gravity's hold on him.

Cloud wondered about his control over this ability. Could he one day go too far and fly up into space, forever and away? No, Cloud had never witnessed Vincent use the ability to fly or float. And Vincent's jumping skills were good, but on par with Cid and Cloud. No, this ability seemed to only slow his fall. To lighten his weight. It wouldn't help him at all if he fell into a volcano.

The mental image was both hilarious and horrifying, and Cloud shook it out of his head. Aeris crept into his thoughts while they were still blank, and he almost tried to shake her out too.

"I'm down," Yuffie's voice came through the PHS. Cloud leapt off the passenger deck, leaving his friends and losing himself to the wind and his thoughts.

Cid was next to jump. When Cloud called up, he was about to leap when Bleer came onto the passenger deck. "Captain!"

"What the hell are you doing up here?!" Cid barked, motioning for Nanaki to jump first. He did.

"The ship's in hover mode. The weekly report just got here."

"Give me the short and sweet version."

"Judging by the time it took Shinra No. 26 to hit Meteor at its velocity, and the changes in diameter of Meteor since then, a report has been issued claiming that Meteor is moving at a speed of only ninety kilometres per hour."

"That's nice and slow. Magic! It'll fuck your brain right up. But slow is good. I like where this is going."

"The bad news is that the reports also claim that it is only twenty-thousand kilometres away – just outside of our atmosphere. The estimated time of arrival is less than nine days. The predicted target for Meteor is – you're not going to like this – the Wastelands, just west of Midgar."

Cait Sith piped in, "Rufus has given the order to clear out a few homes in Kalm to house the Shinra big wigs in case Meteor hits as intended."

"Fat lotta good that'll do 'em."

"That's what I said," the cat laughed. "But nobody's listening in Shinra right now. All the head honchos are constantly fighting, trying to decide what to do. …Reeve wants to move everyone from Midgar into the Mythril Mines. He claims that the worst monsters in there would be nothing compared to Meteorfall. Heidegger and Scarlet are still hell-bent on destroying it, they're scheming like crazy. Rufus has what he wished for – worldwide panic. I envy you guys right now, sitting pretty high above the world. It's pandemonium down here."

"I'm down," came Nanaki's voice.

Cid turned to the cat. "One day you're going to look back on this pandemonium and miss it. Actually, you're going to miss it in _nine_ days. See you at the bottom." And he jumped.

* * *

Yuffie's levitation spell was stronger than ever under her magical prowess. Cid only fell halfway before he began to slow down. The landing was still rough, but he was uninjured. When they were all down (the process from beginning to end took almost half an hour) they observed the pool from a closer perspective. Cid relayed the news to Cloud.

"Nine days," Cloud sighed, looking at the sparkling water. There was a thin layer of mist flowing over the surface, originating at the waterfall at the north of the pool. Cid prodded the water with his spear and found that mere centimetres from the edge, the rocky ground dropped away. His spear dipped down until his hand touched the water, and he drew the long weapon out again.

"Sheesh!" he shook the water off of the spearhead. "This is the place."

Cloud called to _The Wandering Tide_ over the PHS and got no response as expected. The ship was too deep to pick up the signals from Chiara Fawlher's wonderful invention.

"What's that?" Barret pointed to the shore near the waterfall with his gun-arm. Something had washed up and was bobbing in and out of the waterfall.

"I will go inspect this object," Vincent strode along the shore with an ease, putting one pointed boot in front of the other until he reached the object. Being too far away to yell back to them (and Vincent did not make a habit of yelling in any case) he called them on the PHS.

"It is a large, triangular piece of metal and chrome, painted in military camouflage. I would assume that it is a wing from the _Gelnika_."

Cloud was about to inquire as to the location of the rest of it when a low sound rumbled to them from afar – a rusty moaning.

"Is that the Planet crying again?" Barret asked.

"No," Cloud looked around. "It sounds like twisting metal."

"Perhaps it is coming from outside of this oasis," Nanaki offered. "I'll climb up and see what's up there."

In two enormous bounds, Nanaki was on his way up the Cliffside. Cloud wanted to follow, but he couldn't climb that quickly. Perhaps Yuffie could—

Yuffie was gone. Cloud quickly scanned the thin ledge that surrounded the pool for her, and found that Vincent and she had disappeared.

* * *

"Vincent!"

Behind the waterfall, there had been an opening into the cliff, a wet rocky sliver of darkness through which Yuffie had followed him, bouts of protest echoing through the cave. The tunnel was dark and the rocks felt like muddy clay, but thankfully they didn't stick to Yuffie's hands as she felt her way along.

Ahead of her, Vincent was moving slowly through the widening crevice. There was something about this place that called to him. He even remembered staring at these cascading waterfalls aboard _The Tiny Bronco_, wanting to go and see what was behind them. The tunnel opened up and he found himself in a blue cavern. It was another crystal cave, but the pale blue crystals jutting out of the ground weren't materia. They were illuminated by sunlight, which reflected off of each of them around the cave, and in the dusty air the beams of sunlight crossed each other like patchwork. Where the sunlight hit the crystals, they seemed to be growing at a speed unlike any recorded stone. They were sprouting like spring buds. The source of the sunlight was the northernmost corner of the room, and it shone directly upon the largest mass of natural crystals Vincent had ever seen. The pale blue crystals rose up so high they could have held a person inside.

They _were_ holding a person inside; moreover, it was someone Vincent recognized immediately. Knowing this person brought no comfort at all.

* * *

When Nanaki reached the crest of the mountain, he looked down upon the Corel desert and the battle that was taking place there. He immediately turned back to the party and called "Cloud! You should really see this!"

Cloud was already making his way up the mountainside. Barret, Cid and Cait Sith waited by the water for some sign of _The Wandering Tide_. Tifa, meanwhile, was making her way behind the waterfall to look for their missing friends.

Nanaki watched with horror what was happening below until Cloud reached the top and joined him.

In the desert, the Gold Saucer sprouted up towards the clear sky like a single rare rose. Screaming with the fury of a dragon was Weapon – this one red as rubies, with a long neck and enormous red arms, each with three massive silver claws that were currently ripping apart Battle Square. Explosions tore through the park as the golden egg containing the gladiatory arena broke off from the main stem and Ruby Weapon tossed it across the sandy badlands. It crashed and crumpled into itself, sending up a cloud of dust as high as a mountain. A few moments later, the sound blasted over them – a horrible crunching noise of exploding metal, and the combined screams of hundreds of dying souls.

Barret cried over the PHS. "Cloud! The hell's goin on up there?!" Cloud described what he saw, to which Barret responded, "That ain't right! The Gold Saucer ain't part of the Shinra. What the hell does Weapon think it's doin?!"

"The park uses mako energy," Nanaki said calmly. "He might not be deliberately harming the Planet, but Dio is just as guilty as Shinra."

The thick claws of Ruby Weapon were now tearing into the stem of the Gold Saucer, and it let out another thunderous roar. The golden eggs shook and more explosions tore through the park.

* * *

Lucrecia Crescent stood enshrined in crystal, with even her lab coat frozen in place. It had been thirty years, and Vincent assumed that the crystals in which she was trapped had grown so quickly as to preserve her youth, or it was the fingerprint of Jenova's influence on her life. No cells inside of her, but she had been touched.

Yuffie entered the cave behind him.

"Vincent," Yuffie panted, "Something is happening outside."

As if a wind had carried Yuffie's words above a mere echo, Vincent's name permeated through the cave again. It was as faint as a breath, but he recognized her voice. "Vincent?"

"Lucrecia?" Vincent asked, at a total loss for words.

"Who is that?" Yuffie asked.

Vincent raised his claw up and held it in a silencing motion towards the girl. He spoke to the woman trapped in the crystal. "Are you alive?"

Her thoughts seemed to be reflected audibly from crystal to crystal, passing about the cave like the sunlight. "Stay back!" she called out and it rocked the cave walls, and it was still soft as a whisper, but had such intensity that Vincent took a step back. It was then that he noticed his outstretched claw, and wanted nothing more than to hide from her in this form.

* * *

Barret was doing his best to clamour up the Cliffside. Cid was watching him struggle with a smirk on his face when Cait Sith screeched in his high-pitched, robotic voice.

"Something's coming up!"

Cid focused on the pool and saw that the water was disturbed. The water really was bubbling now, and _The Wandering Tide_ emerged from the dark water. The entrance hatch burst open and Bath scrambled onto the surface of the submarine, soaking wet and coughing.

"What the hell happened?" Cid yelled.

"Emerald… Weapon," Bath choked.

"We're dealing with our own Weapon problem as it is. Damn, those things are a pain in the ass. Is the submarine damaged?"

Bath shook his head, "Some water damage… in the interior, maybe…"

"What's the source of the leak? I can probably fix it."

Another shake. "No leak… hatch was open."

"What the hell was the hatch open for?"

Bath spat seawater onto the deck of the _Tide_. "Retrieving the key of the Ancients."

* * *

Tifa entered the cave behind Yuffie. Vincent was asking the woman in the crystal, "What happened after the birth? How did you come to be here?"

"They… they took my child!" came the soft, intense voice of the woman trapped in the crystal, floating around their heads like a ghostly chorus. "I could no longer move or speak… they took him and laid me in a coffin to rot! I began to work my fingers… my limbs… I crawled my way into the mountains… I wanted to kill myself… but the Jenova inside of me would not let me die…"

"Jenova?" Tifa asked. "Who is this?"

Lucrecia whispered, "Tell them, Vincent." So to Yuffie and Tifa, he told the tale of the Jenova Project, all he remembered of the incident.

When he was finished, Yuffie stood quietly, brow furrowed, her mouth a straight line. Tifa asked, "Vincent… who is the father?"

Another question floated in the air. "Tell me, Vincent… is my baby alive? I dream of him… is Sephiroth alive?"

Vincent turned to Lucrecia, his eyes hot and wet. "Lucrecia. Sephiroth is dead." He swept back into the crevice, his cape fluttering behind him and disappearing into the darkness.

"Vincent!" Tifa shouted. "Who is the father?!"

* * *

Barret reached the top of the mountain and looked at the carnage before them. Ruby Weapon was slashing at the stem of the Gold Saucer and it wavered to and fro. Another egg fell from the main structure, breaking off the exterior chocobo track. The egg fell atop Ruby Weapon's small head and there was a bright flash as the innards burst into flames, mako waste spewing all over the jewelled body of the monster. The pieces of gold and metal fell in pieces past the long neck and arms, crushing the ruins of Corel town and burying Dyne for good.

"So much death," Barret said, tears welling in his eyes. "So much death to those who don't deserve it. When the world is this dark, it makes you wonder if it'll ever get back to the way it was before."

"I don't understand, Barret," Nanaki said. "The way it was before was no better. The way it was before was killing the Planet. The way it was before caused Weapon to stir from its slumber. If Holy succeeds, then things can not, and will not, go back to the way they were. Humanity itself may be weeded out."

The large, golden statue of Dio tumbled from his position at the top of the park and fell towards Weapon. The three-pronged, fork-like hand batted it out of the way and continued ripping through the stem.

"Nanaki's right," Cloud nodded, "If it all went back to before, we would still be bombing reactors. Still trying to change the status quo. The world we live in doesn't work. By ourselves, we can't make those big decisions. We can initiate change, but in small doses."

"The system itself," Nanaki finished, "needs an overhaul. Perhaps humanity can't fully change itself from within. Perhaps it will take a Weapon, or a spell, to help you."

With the loudest crack yet, the stem of the Gold Saucer finally gave way, and the enormous park teetered towards Ruby Weapon, taking Dio, Ester and Chocobo Joe with it. Once the integrity of the structure had been compromised, the entire park seemed to fold in on itself. The remaining eggs burst apart. The long wires of the gondola snapped and cracked like whips back towards North Corel. Ruby Weapon was caught under the twisting metal, but it sank through the desert sand and disappeared underneath the surface as the tallest structure on the Planet was reduced to jagged rubble. The last remnants of civilization in Corel were now ruin.

"Still," Barret wiped a tear off of his cheek, "It jes makes hopin' a hard thing to do."


	135. Book 5: Emerald Weapon

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 28  
**

**Emerald Weapon  
**

Two hours before Ruby Weapon reduced the Gold Saucer to debris above them, Bath was stirred awake by the proximity alarm on _The Wandering Tide_. He wasn't yet clothed, still lying on the cot they shared, stinking now of old sweat and sex. He turned to his lover.

"Alph," he said, shaking Dearness's strong, naked back. "Alph!"

Dearness rolled over, eyes blinking groggily. He squinted with drowsy confusion until he heard the warning chimes. Then they were both running towards the bridge, naked as ghirofelgos.

"Do you feel the ship—"

"Tilting?" Bath threw himself into the navigation chair. "Absolutely!"

Dearness was beside him, standing over the controls, his privates next to Bath's ear. "There is an underwater current pulling us through the passage, and it's getting thinner."

"It's the ceiling, then, not—"

"Not Weapon, thank the stars."

Bath made adjustments to the ship's course and they leaned back, exhaling their relief. Dearness put a tender hand on Bath's shoulders, and Bath held it there, forcing himself to breathe slowly, to steady his heart rate.

"What are we going to do?" Bath asked.

"If the pressure gets too high, or the passage too narrow, I guess we'll have to—"

"I meant, about us."

More silence, and quickened heart rates. "I don't know."

"I mean, we're down here for a reason – we're down here as a failsafe in case the worst happens up there. Does this mean we fail? I don't want to fail and I don't want everyone to die. I don't want to be responsible for the death of our species but I _do_ want you. Because I love you! I love you!"

Bath didn't know which happened first, him standing of his own volition or Dearness pulling him towards him. He supposed it didn't matter, for within a split second they were kissing and kissing and his tears were smeared on their lips, salty and hot.

* * *

The second time wasn't as quick as the first, but it was still thankfully brief. He had never experienced that kind of pain or pleasure before today and it was overwhelming. They lay, soaked in the products of their love-making, taking turns on the same cigarette.

After a particularily long drag, Dearness said, "Fuck the world," and his words came out in smoke.

Bath put the stick in his mouth and looked up at Dearness, listening like a child.

"This is a world full of rules and standards created to prevent us from enjoying ourselves. I could give you a million reasons why what we just did is wrong but none of them are because I didn't want to, or because you didn't want to or because it was unhealthy or unnatural. Animals do it without a second thought – I've seen it on the telly. Love is healthy. Love is so healthy that when it's taken away from us, we call it heartbreak. And I've loved you since you took off your helmet and I saw your face for the first time. In that moment – when we were prisoners, not numbers or slots on an out-of-fashion ranking system, or soldiers… prisoners. Just two people with guns pointed at them, people, goddamnit. Animals. When all of those rules and regulations had been stripped of me, I left behind more than my allegiance to Shinra. There, cowering like a slumling I let everything I had learned in this whole damn plate-dwelling life fall off me like weights. And it was freedom, there, with you and AVALANCHE, although I couldn't put it together at the time. I was so confused. But lying here with you it all becomes clear." Bath passed him the cigarette and he took another drag. "So fuck the world. Fuck everything it has to say about what's goin' on right here and now. If loving you means that humanity doesn't continue, if it's a choice between following what I want and what's best for the system, then fuck humanity. I don't want to be the father of another generation of systems and rules that prevent love from succeeding. I don't want to be responsible for a new world of unhealthy people. And if fate dictates that I'm a father someday, then I want to be just about as healthy as I can, don't I?"

"…But humanity… Cloud suggested whores."

"Whores are a choice, sure. We could lock up a couple of females down here while the world burns, let them cry their woman tears and hate us for forcing them to live. We could knock 'em up with loveless sex once a year until we get enough combinations of boy and girl to make a community of incestuous bastards, all of them miserable and cold and hungry. All of them hating the buggers they had for fathers. We could interbreed two sets of kiddies and grankiddies until Cloud's idea of new humanity was limbless, retarded and starving to death. Feeding off our dead carcasses like monsters in the Wastelands. We could do these horrible things and hate ourselves for it. Or we could be the last of our kind before life on the Planet blinks out of existence. We could spend the rest of our lives showing the world just how great and powerful love can be, when it defies the rules that life created just to preserve itself. If life itself is going to end, why shouldn't the rules that prevent its end end too?"

Dearness took a final puff and reached over Bath, twisting the butt out on the metal wall on the other side. With his armpit in his face, Bath could smell the fresh sweat stronger than ever, and it smelled raw and enticing. Everything had made sense to him, and he wanted Dearness's arms around him again, but Dearness sat up.

"Alph," Bath began, "We were put in charge of making sure that life is preserved. The life that makes love possible. But you're saying that our love is at war with life."

"I'm saying," said Dearness, putting on his red dungarees, "That if fate meant us to love, and I believe in fate and I believe it did… then fate meant for life to either continue without our help, or end altogether."

The proximity alarm went off again and Dearness was bolting out of the bunk and towards the bridge. Bath was throwing clothes on while running behind, tripping over his blue pants.

"There's something ahead."

"More rocks?"

"No. Take a look."

Bath threw himself in the navigation seat and looked at the radar. It blipped on the screen in front of his eyes, a large triangular figure, larger than the _Tide_.

"I have no idea. I'm running a scan."

There was a sweeping sound and a cheery female voice came through the intercom. It was the voice of Rhonda, the head Shinra secretary. Her pre-recorded words came out awkwardly, one-at-a-time. "Analysis completed. Object has been submerged for several days. Shinra vehicle detected. This is the Air Force's _Gelnika_."

"The _Gelnika_?" Dearness gasped.

"It must have crashed and been swept under here by the current."

"Was there anyone important on board?"

Bath issued another scan. Rhonda's eerie voice returned to them. "Analysis completed. DNA scanning has confirmed the DNA of Turk, Rude. Commander, Gideon Strafford. Major…"

Rhonda prattled on a long list of names, but after the first, Bath was already lining up _The Wandering Tide_ with the entrance to the _Gelnika_.

"Is this going to work?" Dearness asked.

"Are you asking if we're going to stay dry, or if we're going to survive?"

"Both."

"The answer's the same. I don't know."

"Warning!" Rhonda's voice blared through the intercom. "Collision imminent!"

There was a clanging and a slight wavering of the ship. "There has been a collision!" Rhonda informed them form beyond the grave. "No damage sustained!"

Bath continued to propel the ship towards the Gelnika, but it wouldn't so much as budge. "That's a pretty good sign that we're tight up against it," Bath let go on the controls. "Are you sure we want to go in there and look for survivors?"

"Rude is one of the most important people on the Planet. It wouldn't feel right to leave him there."

"I thought we were the most important people on the Planet."

Dearness laughed, for the first time since they had made love. "Well, we stepped out of that role pretty quick, didn't we?"

Bath smiled back and they kissed before heading towards the hatch that would lead them out of _The Wandering Tide_. Bath made a quick detour to the bunk where he grabbed a med kit and two flashlights.

"Are you ready?" Dearness asked when he had caught up with him. Bath nodded shyly. Wincing, Dearness twirled the wheel that loosened the hatch and pushed it. Water dripped in from all sides as he opened the hatch and for a moment, Bath thought that his calculations had been wrong, that they were opening the door into the ocean and the end of their lives.

Dearness threw the door wide open and water did not gush in. It continued to drip in slowly. Dearness looked down at him and smiled. "Nice work, Lieutenant."

Bath smiled back. "Yes, sir."

Above the open hatch was a sealed area where the meeting of the two vessels had prevented the ocean from rushing in. On the _Gelinka_'s side, there was some jagged metal where one of the wings had broken off. There was also a door that remained closed. When Dearness pulled it open, they cringed again, half-expecting the _Gelnika_ to be full of sea water ready to explode onto them. There was a hiss when he opened it and Bath felt his heart skip a beat.

The hiss was only air escaping, and Dearness swung the door wide. It opened into the dark.

Bath turned the flashlight on, and they crawled inside.

* * *

The _Gelnika_ had been turned nearly on its side, so navigating it was difficult in such low light. Some fluorescent tubes that had once been in the ceiling hung down like old vines, flickering every now and again. Water dripped slowly from above – not in a threatening way, it was clear that after a few days this ship was airtight enough not to implode anytime soon. But water dripped slowly from the spaces in between the bolts and the walls, reminding them that they were still at the bottom of the ocean in a vessel built for the sky.

"This was a military bomber during the Wutai war," Dearness explained, "But lately it's been used on various missions, not just military. Transporting Professor Hojo's specimens, presidential travel, etcetera. On the off chance that any of Hojo's experiments were on board, we don't want to attract too much attention to ourselves."

"The ship doesn't look in too bad shape," Bath said. His hope for survivors was growing stronger.

When they came upon their first body, that hope faltered. The general lay at the end of the first hall – he had obviously slid there, for there was a streak of blood leading to the pool he bobbed in. It looked like he had been popped open from the impact, and that the skin and bones floating in the blood were otherwise empty. Both of their flashlight beams scanned the body up and down, looking for traces of teeth or beating. The general just seemed to have died from the crash.

They turned the corner away from the body and found themselves in the cargo bay, where the bay doors had been bent and opened a bit. Jagged rocks and ancient roots were poking in through the slot between the doors and water had rushed in through the opening. Since the only opening of the ship was on the bottom, the water hadn't filled the airtight vessel and instead had only created a small lake inside of the cargo bay. Wooden crates and the bodies of strange creatures floated in the water – Hojo's experiments or strange sea creatures who only inhabited the deepest corners of the Planet.

They shone their beams of light wildly around the cargo bay, landing on the creatures, the crates, the gnarled roots that used to channel the water up to the forests of Corel and were now useless hunks of spiralling wood. Bath's flashlight flickered out, and he smacked the bottom to try and get it to work again.

"No sign of Rude here," Dearness said, "On the plus side, though, looks like anything dangerous here is dead. Or escaped."

"Or hiding," Bath said nervously. "Waiting…"

"You wanna turn back?"

In truth, Bath did, but he had seen something peculiar in the water that caught his eye. He temporarily gave up trying to get his flashlight on again and pointed into the darkness. "Dearness, what do you suppose that is?"

By some miracle, Dearness shone the flashlight directly at what Bath was pointing to. It looked like a large stick – it could have broken off from one of the ancient roots had it not looked meticulously carved. There were numerous spikes sticking out of it like elongated thorns on a rose. It ended in a gorgeous T-shape, with strange runes carved into the wood.

"Fate," Dearness smiled, "That's what it is."

They scrambled awkwardly down an almost vertically tilted staircase towards the pool of water and the strange staff floating there. Dearness didn't think twice before running into the pool, splashing and wading his way towards the relic.

He grabbed the staff, looking at the way the wood still had knife marks. It was as if all this time underwater hadn't eroded a bit of it. It had been charmed to remain in tact no matter what.

"It must have floated in through the hole in the hull. If there was anything in the world that was made by the Ancients," Dearness smiled, "This would be it."

Bath was looking at something else, however. He had slammed his flashlight on again – it was shaking in his hand. Floating near them was the body of some hideous crustacean clearly of Hojo's making – the head was bloated and off-coloured from the days spent underwater but it was clearly the head of an eledunk mutated onto the body of an oversized zolkalter. The trunk of the eledunk had been ripped away to reveal the bone underneath, but that wasn't what Bath was looking at. In the shattered teeth between the tusks, there was lodged an empty black shoe.

Wading towards Bath, Dearness saw the shoe. "Rude's, d'ya think? Do you think this thing fucking ate him?"

Bath shook his head. "If that was the case, the shoe'd be the other way around. No, this is from a kick, or an unsuccessful bite."

There was still the slow dripping from above, and Dearness was afraid for a moment that it might be blood. He turned up to look at it and was relieved that it was still seawater, dripping slowly towards them.

"So," Dearness used the relic as a walking stick, to help him out of the water. "That still leaves us wondering where Rude is. You think some other monster was fighting with this one over him?"

Bath shrugged as his flashlight flickered out again. Trying to help, Dearness shone his beam onto Bath's flashlight as the former Lieutenant struggled to get it on again. He twisted the tiny bulb, knocked the battery around. He looked up at Dearness with a look of amused defeat, humour trying to work its way into his face – trying to stave off the worry and anxiety that plagued them in the deafening silence. Dearness shone the flashlight straight up and it illuminated both their faces. They looked into each others eyes and chuckled just a little, relieved that they were in the company of one another.

Suddenly, the expression on Bath's face turned to fear. "What's that?!" He pointed behind Dearness who swivelled quickly to look, shining his flashlight on whatever could be there. As it turns out, he didn't need to.

There was a light travelling down the hallway – the source of it was still around the corner, but the glow of it was unnatural and far too bright. Even without seeing the source, they squinted at the brilliance of it.

It slowly grew brighter, accompanied by a periodic clanging noise of something against the metal walls.

It hadn't occurred to either of them to bring their guns.

When the source of the light turned the corner, it was almost too blinding to look upon. They both had to shield their eyes, and in doing so they dropped their flashlights into the water at their knees, Dearness's flashlight shorting out to join Bath's.

The entire cargo bay was awash with a terrible white light and they were paralysed with fear. Each of them thought that the light was a precursor to some attack – like a spider sedating his prey, they had fallen victim to some monster's tranquilizer.

After a few moments, when nothing happened to either of them, they lowered their arms and looked at the source of light.

It was still blinding to be sure, but the light seemed to eminate from a dark figure. A human of dark skin, bald and wearing a torn and bloody blue suit. He was wearing one shoe, but he looked unharmed.

Rude looked upon them with the same awe and curiosity that was directed his way. "Who are you?" he asked.

* * *

They were standing on the wall of the bridge of the _Gelnika_, looking through (amazingly intact) glass windows. Had the captain been alive, he would have explained that the windows designed by Shinra's top engineers (among them Cid Highwind) designed the windows to withstand incredibly varying degrees of pressure, and that while untested, they might have included the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, the captain was dead and slumped bloody over the helm, his legs dangling down towards them. All human crew were now accounted for.

Rude, Dearness and Bath watched the rushing currents peel off more small bits of the bomber and float past the _Gelnika_'s brilliant headlights. The current continued to carry them further down the passage and up through one of two openings. The smaller one – a long fissure – led presumably to a higher pressurized geyser at the very top of the mountain where all the waterfalls began. The larger, passable opening led to the pool that Cloud had described to them.

"As you can see, I am the only survivor," Rude said. It was the first thing he had uttered since they had explained themselves and their mission to rescue any survivors.

"How did you survive?" Bath asked.

"Magic," Rude said, and said no more.

"We have rations for four up to a year on our submarine. That will be more than enough to get you back to Junon. We just need to make a quick stop first."

"Where?" Rude asked.

Bath and Dearness realized at the same time that letting Rude know of their newfound allegiance to AVLANCHE would be disadvantageous. Immediately after, (as if fate had dictated it, Dearness thought) the PHS Bath had put in the med kit crackled to life.

"Dearness or Bath, this is Cloud. If you can hear me, we're waiting at the rendez-vous point. Good luck on your end."

There was a weighty silence as the insurgents tried to gauge Rude's reaction. He was still near-blindingly bright, and his eyes were concealed in his glasses – well, that was the point, wasn't it? Rude's frown deepened. "I see."

"Here's how it is," Dearness sighed. "We've given up on Shinra. They came into the 'save-the-world' game too late with too little. If you want to label us traitors, or terrorists, you can do that – fine by me. But if you ever want to see the surface world again, you're going to have to trust us. We have to deliver this staff to Cloud before we drop you off with Shinra, and if you are going to cause trouble, you might as well stay down here."

Rude almost smiled. "How do you know that Cloud will not kill you when he finds out you saved my life? And as for that, I will not harm those who are saving my life. I make no promises when we meet AVALANCHE, but you are safe. And you are not leaving me here – there is no choice in the matter."

"He's right," Bath said. "He could kill us with his thumbs. He could probably man the _Tide_ on his own, and find AVALANCHE by his oneses. Alph, I don't think this is a rescue operation anymore – he's sparing _us_."

There was a moaning creak and something enormous floated past the window. At this depth, it was too dark to make out what it was but it was somehow an ever darker shade of black than the deep ocean. "What was that?" Dearness asked. "I didn't catch it in the light – was it more debris?"

"I know what you're talking about. I think I saw it. It didn't seem to be following the current."

"We should go." Rude turned and began walking towards the wall.

To get to the bridge, they had to ascend through a hallway that had been turned on its side, forming a vertical shaft. The door of the bridge was a short climb from the wall they stood on, and Rude leapt up and grabbed the ledge of it, hoisting himself up to straddle the wall. Dearness linked his hands to act as a step for Bath, who reached up and grabbed Rude's outstretched arm. Bath joined Rude in straddling the side of the overturned doorway.

Before Dearness made the move to jump for their hands, he looked behind him once again through the windows at the black of the water – with only the lights of the _Gelnika_ illuminating the distant passages and flecks of algae in the water. There was nothing there, but Dearness looked at the blackness intensely, as if waiting for something.

"Haste, now," Rude growled.

Dearness continued to stare, and it wasn't long before something great and yellow floated down into view. The room was flooded with yellow light, and it reflected off the spatterings of blood like sunlight on wet blankets of leaves. The eye that gazed at them glowed like active materia, a kind of liquid marble with nothing to suggest it was an eye – only the sense that it was looking at them.

There was a smaller blue eye looking as well (smaller in comparison, it was still the size of a house). The orbs of light mostly shone upon the innards of the _Gelnika_ but they also illuminated the jewelled skin of the beast they belonged to. They couldn't see the form of the thing, for it had blocked the entire view from the bridge with just a small part of its body, but the entirety of it was a cracked green, swimming with hues of yellow and blue. Emerald.

Bath began to scream and Rude looked down at how far they had climbed. Too far to jump. "Go," he pointed down the shaft. His voice seemed to calm Bath somewhat, and the former lieutenant reached out for the grating that once made up the floor of the hallway. He latched onto it like a ladder and slowly lifted his legs from the doorway.

Emerald Weapon continued to float along and the eyes floated past the window. A few seconds later, a second set of eyes drifted into sight, and from his position in the bridge, Dearness realized that the four eyes of Emerald Weapon were set into the rigid crystal fins of the thing, which extended from what-should-be-called shoulders. When the mouth of the beast floated up to face the window, it was a glowing red storm of swirling energy – as big as the bridge itself.

Dearness looked up and saw Rude reaching down for him alone – Bath had gone on ahead. Dearness leapt and grabbed the Turk's hand, frantically climbing onto the doorway with them.

Bath was making his way down the shaft, sliding and clambering onto the grate. Dearness and Rude both motioned for the other to go, and Rude leapt to go first – there was no time for pleasantries. Unlike Bath, who was taking tiny terrified steps, Rude let himself drop as much as he could and used his hands and feet to slow him to periodic stops.

There was quickly enough room on the wall of the shaft for Dearness to grab a hold. He slowly gripped the grate – it felt rickety and unstable. He turned towards the windows again and saw that the hurricane inside Emerald Weapon's mouth was gathering energy. He could feel the beginnings of a magic tug emanating from within the monster.

With no more hesitation, Dearness threw himself onto the wall and could feel the corners of the grating begin to peel away. The sound of stretching bolts was drowned out by a deafening sucking sound. A massive magic tug nearly ripped his soul from his body, made his eyes feel like they would pop out of his head. He gazed again at Emerald Weapon's mouth, bright as the sun, sucking in water and debris and the beams of light. It gathered them into an ever shrinking ball of flame, compacting and getting denser. When it could pack in no more, all sound stopped and the absence of noise was such a drastic change Dearness thought he might never hear again.

When the fall of flame inside Emerald Weapon's mouth broke into a screaming wave of sound and energy, shattering the windows and shaking the ship, he realized that he could hear very well. The impact itself peeled the grating away from the foundation and Dearness's section collapsed backwards, slamming into what used to be the ceiling but was now just a vertical wall like everything else. The shock, impact and disorientation lost Dearness's grip and he tumbled down the shaft, slamming his head on a pipeline before straightening for a landing. Despite the pain and dizziness, he managed to orient himself somewhere between falling past Rude and falling past Bath, and his legs were straight when he landed.

His right leg bent properly when he landed but his left leg was locked at the knee, and he felt his thigh bone tear out of its natural place in the body, shattering through his pelvis and halting, lodged in his guts. Blood flew out of his mouth over the wall and he collapsed mere feet away from the open hatch that led to the _Wandering Tide_.

"Alph!" Bath cried, and dropped the few metres down to him. Bath's landing was hard as well, but he wasn't injured.

Water exploded out of the doorway to the bridge and poured down on them, sweeping them all down the hallway towards the hatch. The water rushed into the hole and they flowed along with it, quickly being submerged in torrent seawater.

When the enclosed space between the ships was filled with water and it had lost its vacuum, Bath closed the hatch to the _Gelnika_ and Dearness used all of his strength to open the hatch to the _Tide_. The water emptied from their small space into the submarine, and they could breathe again.

Rude began to cast a cure spell on Dearness, and it was immense pain when the thigh bone began to move of its own volition back towards its rightful place in his body. Bath threw the Key of the Ancients down the hatch and started slowly climbing inside.

The two ships suddenly rocked to and fro. Rude stopped his casting immediately, shooing Bath inside the submarine. He reached to hoist Dearness towards the hatch. The attack came so suddenly that Rude was caught by rare surprise. With a swift hand motion, Dearness foiled Rude's attempts to rescue him and instead propelled him into the shaft. Rude fell past Bath, who was climbing up the ladder to retrieve Dearness.

Before Emerald Weapon dealt the fatal blow, Dearness almost thought he might survive this ordeal. When the impact of the creature rocked the submarine away from Gelnika – as seawater rushed in from all sides towards him, ready to pop his eardrums and crush his bones – Dearness was glad that he managed to save the Turk from the same fate. The last thing he saw was the face of his love, and the last feeling was regret.

Dearness howled Bath's hated first name, crying for help, when the water enveloped him and crushed him into an unrecognizable form.

* * *

"BALTOOOOO!" would haunt Bath for the rest of his life. There was no time to see Dearness's body reduced to pulp, for the seawater was exploding down the ladder into the _Tide_. The force of the water slammed the hatch shut and Bath grabbed the wheel, his hands broken and wet from the ocean's impact. He fell off the ladder and slammed onto the floor of the submarine, freezing and paralyzed. Somewhere far away from his consciousness, Rhonda's mechanical voice warned of Weapon's close proximity. There were horrible noises of the _Gelnika_ imploding, and the feeling that the current was washing them dangerously towards their death.

The water rushed over him in circular waves like wine spinning in a goblet, making his eyes sting and freezing his joints. He could hear Rude running around in the water, splashing it. The submarine steadied and Bath managed to sit up in all of his confusion and sorrow. He would have choked to death on the water had he continued to lie down. Later, he would remark on his body's effortless survival instincts. He sat above the water level and spat out the salt and blood in his mouth.

He must have sat there for over thirty minutes, the water turning his skin blue and pruny. The wooden staff of the Ancients floated near him and he grabbed onto it violently, pulling it toward him. The shattered bones in his hands burned for assistance, but he ignored them, holding the frail-looking stick of a thing in front of him. How easy it would be to reach up his leg and kick the thing in two – this relic. This trophy of death.

Rude came splashing up behind him. "We've reached the surface of the pool," he said. "I believe this is your rendez-vous point. For your sake, I will remain here undetected. Go and deliver your relic."

* * *

Bath denied Cloud entrance into the _Tide_, saying that the damage was manageable, and that they should see to this Holy business with haste. He did not tell them of Dearness's death, or the man hiding in the submarine. AVALANCHE had regrouped and flown off in their airship towards the Ancient's lock. Bath had clamoured back into the submarine and they made their wet, depressing journey to Junon Harbour.

When passing by the crumpled remains of the _Gelnika_, Emerald Weapon was thankfully nowhere to be seen. They travelled against the current until they were in open sea, drifting along towards the underwater reactor.

Rude had sussed out what Bath and Dearness had been up to, smelling the stink and observing Bath's mental and emotional state. Rude had drained his energy healing the last of Bath's wounds, and he slept in the spare cot for the rest of the trip. Bath sat alone on the bridge, staring at graphs and monitors with an absent mind.

The underwater reactor was damaged – Emerald Weapon had been taking regular shifts here, it seemed.

The docks were undamaged, and when the crew roped it in, they were all surprised to see Rude emerge first, pulling Bath with him. Rude barked out orders to the crew, some were long and complicated and some were curt.

"Escort me to the helipad," Rude asked. "Your vessel will need a day to repair and refuel."

They took the elevators up to the Grand Path and walked along. Bath's eyes were fixed on the surface of the sea, face drooping, saying less than Rude. Rude made a few calls on his PHS and ordered a helicopter and someone named Malia Wallace to the helipad.

When they reached the helipad, Rude twirled his fingers at the crew of a helicopter and they sprang into action, readying it for takeoff. There was a tall, attractive woman leaning against the door of the helicopter. The Turk turned to Bath.

"You are hereby honourably discharged," Rude nodded. "You are free to do as you will. If you still want the submarine, it is yours on one condition, you take Malia with you." Rude snapped his fingers and the woman trotted over to them slowly.

"I'm not interested," Bath said.

"You had a mission given to you by my enemy," Rude was not used to this much talking, and could feel his voice going. "I agree with this mission. You were prepared to fail that mission for someone. It would dishonour his memory to refuse the mission when it's now again possible. Saving my life has provided you with the opportunity to succeed. That is why he saved my life. Because he knew it was meant to work this way."

"You mean… fate?"

"Call it what you will. If you attempt to enter the submarine without Malia you will be shot. I'm going. Feel free to cry under the ocean for this last week – if fate makes your stay any longer, you will thank me for it one day. Go."

Rude sat down inside the helicopter and it rose from the helipad. His legs dangled down, one shoe swinging back and forth underneath the belly of the flying vessel.

Malia put her arm around Bath. It had been months since he had been touched by a woman. He had forgotten the sweetness of their smell. She led him back to the Grand Path and he began to walk with assurance again, leading her into the elevator and eventually to the docks and to the _Wandering Tide_. It had been given a new paint job – a fashionable red colour. The name Dearness had given it was painted on the side in official letters. The hatch was open.


	136. Book 5: Music Box

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 29  
**

**Music Box  
**

In close circles, secrets – once leaked even a little – are not secrets. The full gruesome history of Vincent and Sephiroth circulated through the airship-dwellers immediately, and because of the closeness of the circle, few details were lost. It had very little room to be altered by degrees of separation. Cloud was the last to know – he had been examining the Key of the Ancients in his quarters and had missed the crucial hour in which everyone from Will Bleer to Priscilla Webb had learned of Vincent Valentine's lost love.

In the mess hall during lunch, the entire table had been aghast at their leader's lack of gossip and proceeded to shout over each other telling the story. Vincent, who had been continuously within earshot of constant retellings, felt more singled out, more outside than ever, and he sat alone across the hall. When two crew members were arguing over the detail of whether or not the ring he'd bought Lucrecia was gold or ultima, Cloud realized that he had listened to enough, and excused himself.

He approached Vincent. Vincent surveyed his leader with the same steely gaze he gave everyone. Cloud sat beside him as the room full of crew prattled on about the next topic.

"I was a mercenary for a while." Cloud gazed along with Vincent at the room's hubbub. "I was convinced that Shinra was worthless, but I knew that opposing them would just turn me into another Sephiroth. It was scary to choose a side, so I shut myself down and took jobs for money only. Because I was afraid of myself, I didn't let anyone else in. Anyway, on this one mission there was this guy named Wedge. Real green guy, soft in the middle. We're recovering after this big bombing mission, and he started to go on about his life and his past. Back then, I had convinced myself that getting close to people was how things like the burning of Nibelheim happened. I shut him up – not for his sake – but because I didn't want to deal with my own past. Meanwhile, Barret was eating these stories up, and when Wedge died, Barret could barely go on. I felt pain, somewhere deep where I couldn't reach it, but I never let myself care about them the way that they deserved. I don't know where I'm going with this, I suppose I'm saying that we all know a lot about each other now. Knowing so much about Yuffie was what helped me forgive her for stealing our materia. Knowing so much about Cid was what helped me get him into space. But at the same time, privacy is key. I didn't let the party know about my… well, what I thought was my past until I was ready to start dealing with it. If they had all known on that first bombing mission, it would have sucked a lot. It would have made me vulnerable when I wasn't ready to be yet. So I'm not going to pry into your history. But when the time comes, Vincent, I won't shut you up."

Vincent nodded and hummed and that was the end of it for a while.

* * *

The _Highwind_ avoided the Sandy Badlands for fear of sharing the Gold Saucer's fate, and it flew straight north instead, over the water geyser and the Nibel Mountains. When it was over water, it began to arc to the east, soaring over the snowy fields of Knowlespole. From the window of his quarters, Cloud could see the dome of pure energy guarding the Northern Crater, and wondered about Sephiroth. Had he tapped into the Lifestream yet? Was he eating it, underneath all that light and magic?

They landed where they had before – in the only substantial clearing in the Corral Valley. The airship nestled in quite nicely among the shells and gnarled red coral. They dropped the ladder from the passenger deck and it unrolled onto the cracked shell of the earth. The crew stayed behind and controlled the _Highwind_'s propellers, making sure it stayed close enough for the ladder to reach the ground.

The eight of them marched through the Corral Valley in a cluster. In the last few days it had become significantly warmer here. The automatic reaction was to blame the slow approach of summer, but it occurred to Cloud that it might have something to do with the depletion of the Lifestream throwing a wrench into the ecosystem. He held onto the key of the Ancients a little tighter.

They filed into the Cetra's amphitheatre, finding Bugenhagen floating above them at the shrine. They scaled the steep steps to meet him.

"Welcome back," Bugenhagen smiled, "That was certainly quick!"

"Yeah," Cloud held up the key, "We've brought this from the lowest point in the ocean. It sure doesn't look like a key, more like a staff of some kind."

Bugenhagen hooted his pleasure. "Excellent! That fits perfectly with what the messages imply."

In his excitement, Cloud nearly dropped the staff. "So you've learned more?"

Bugenhagen pointed to the runes around the base of the shrine. "See here, the cetrasophist inscribed: 'place the key in the music box.'"

Observing the staff, Cloud said "I don't get it."

Bugenhagen waved his arms and the key floated out of Cloud's hands. "Good, it's still wet." Bugenhagen said, "Observe that the protrusions on the staff resemble the pins on a revolving cylinder in a music box."

Tifa's eyes widened in understanding, "It _does_ look like it, a little. But where's the music box?"

"There is a cluster of crystals standing freely on that side of the amphitheatre," Nanaki gestured. They all looked and found that Nanaki was right. Behind an enormous stone cylinder were a collection of clear crystal spires collected in a circle.

"Very clever, Nanaki!" Bugenhagen floated over to the crystal cluster as Nanaki smiled (which still, after all this time, looked odd to Cloud). Bugenhagen called when he reached the crystals. "This is the music box! I shall put the key into this hole in the centre."

The staff gently wafted from Bugenhagen's robed arms into the hole at the centre of the cluster. It began to turn, and its wet protrusions rubbed up against the sides of the crystals.

At first, to the listeners, it seemed to be all notes at once drifting through the air, as crisp and cool as a wet finger circling the top of a wine goblet. Like an orchestra tuning up before the symphony.

Suddenly, it gave way to a song. The clear ringing noises were still there, but they filled each of them with its own, inaudible song. To Tifa, it was a piano playing a song that reminded her of Aeris; a song she had been hearing her whole life, always familiar – perhaps it had reminded her of Aeris before they had ever met. To Vincent, it was the faint whistling of the happy traveller's tune. To Yuffie, it was the zithers and the takebue of her homeland, permeating the air like in the tranquil days before the war came to Kor. To Nanaki, it was the thudding drums of falling rocks echoing in the canyons. To Cid it was the melody that a smooth engine sang, thrumming perfectly. To Barret it was the sound of Marlene humming. To Cloud, it was all of these things and to Cait Sith, who had abruptly shut down, it was none.

The enormous cylindrical rock jutting out from beneath the ground began to drop away, sliding down into the earth. The magic of the music box was a trigger to drop the stone. _'But for what purpose?'_ Cloud thought.

He would soon learn that the cylinder was acting as a kind of stopper for an underground water funnel – much like the one directly above Lucrecia's Cave and the key's hiding place. He heard the water erupting somewhere above him. When he turned to look, he saw only the protruding edge of an overhanging cliff. Flooding over the edge and down directly towards them was clear, pure looking water.

At that instant, the dead dwarf tree emitted a blast of energy that knocked everyone back away from it, and it was a miracle that none of them fell off of the narrow catwalk they were on. The water poured endlessly from the overhanging cliff, engulfing the shrine and soaking the ground below.

"Now," Bugenhagen arrived beside them. "Go inside. Hope may be inside." There was an ominous tone to the old man's voice, and Cloud paid heed to the choice of words. Hope 'may be' inside.

As he approached the gushing water, he noticed that there was a pocket of air inside of it, and he stepped inside of the flow of water into the pocket of air. The shrine was emitting a pulsing energy that pushed the water back, but he found that it no longer had any effect on him. His friends entered the underwater chamber after him, as the water poured around them on all sides.

The light that had converged atop the dwarf tree was pulsing rapidly, swimming with colours. Bugenhagen hooted. "This water is but a screen to project an image! Observe the way that the light projects an image onto the screen of water!"

Cloud followed the beams of light being cast forth from the shrine. They did indeed cast images into the water, and even though the waterfall flowed and warped the images, there was clarity to their message. The images being cast were images of the white materia, and a thousand years of history passed before his eyes. He saw families of Cetra born, raised, growing old and dying in seconds, passing the white stone down like an heirloom. In a few brief flashes, Ifalna was born, raised, living with Gast, birthing a child, under experimentation, and dying on the steps of a train station, handing the materia to her child. Cloud had heard stories of Aeris as a child, but it was the first time seeing the image of her. He found it remarkable and heartbreaking that she had the same eyes, but on a child's face.

As the images drew closer to the present, they began to slow down. The images followed the white materia through Aeris' life in less than a minute, but the sequence carried the depth and weight of the years it showed. Elmyra's homeschooling. Her relationship with Zack (which Cloud found incredibly hard to watch) and her complicated relationship with Tseng were displayed before them uncensored and underscored by the pervading music from the crystal chimes of the music box.

The speed of the recapitulation continued to slow as Cloud himself began to appear on the screen of water. Had their situation not been so dire, and had he not been concentrating so hard on Aeris, he would have marvelled at his face on a screen – like a photograph in a newspaper, there he was! Larger than life, lying in Aeris' flower bed. Leading Aeris through the junklands of the slums. Crawling with Aeris through the sewers. Rescuing Aeris from Nanaki. Walking in the sun with Aeris, their boots in their hands, their toes in the grass. Riding chocobos with Aeris. Fighting with Aeris atop Tooth Rock. Sailing on a boat with Aeris. Climbing a mountain with Aeris. Leading Aeris into the buggy. Sitting around Cosmo Candle with Aeris. Fighting the materia keeper with Aeris. Crashing into the ocean with Aeris. Falling asleep on the beaches of Wutai with Aeris, their hands intertwined. Nights in Virennion, talking with Aeris, the white materia bobbing back and forth with her contagious laughter. And the music, still the music. Riding the bright gondola with Aeris, looking into each others eyes with that secret want.

Aeris on the altar, praying. Here the images slowed to real time, and everyone was forced to bear witness to the horrible scene once more.

When her eyes opened, there was a satisfaction gleaming in them that Cloud hadn't noticed before. It was brutal and lucky to see this image again. The first time he had seen her look at him, he was filled with guilt, for pushing her away, for nearly killing her. He was filled with that secret longing and wasn't really looking at her. Wasn't looking at the way she was looking at him. It was a look that said 'I'm ready.'

Sephiroth dropped behind her like a boulder, and the masamune cut the ribbon in her hair, and the materia flew from the place it had remained for two decades, bouncing off the floor towards the water. The music box seemed to chime in and the images slowed even further, so that the materia fell into the pool in slow motion, floating downwards until it reached the bottom. There it nestled in the sand, and the light on the shrine continued to project this image, for the materia hadn't moved from its location at the bottom of the pool.

The ancient magic had served its purpose – the music box had shown them exactly where on the Planet the white materia was. And it lay there untouchable, in a magically hidden city that only a Cetra could enter. Impossible to get to, it was, so Cloud felt hope slip away from him again. Another red herring. Another distraction on the way to the grave.

He looked hopelessly up at the image once more and saw the way the light hit the white materia. No, that wasn't right. It was dark at the bottom of the pool, so there was no light hitting it. The materia itself was emitting light, reflecting off of itself, and glowing a bright pale green.

"It's glowing," Cloud observed.

"Hoo hoo!" Bugenhagen bobbed up and down. "It's a pale green!"

Understanding came to Cloud, followed by another wave of hope. "Aeris. Aeris has already prayed for Holy. After I gave the black materia to Sephiroth, Aeris' words came to me in a dream. She said that she was the only one who could stop Sephiroth, and that there was something she had to do here. That was Holy. She knew about Holy! She had the white materia, and she knew about this place, and she knew what she had to do! Aeris left us great hope. It cost her life, her future… I'm sorry, Aeris. I should have figured this out sooner. You left us without saying a word. It was all so sudden, I couldn't think. That's why it took me so long to find out. But, Aeris… I understand now. I'll do the rest."

"Dumb fuck!" Cid barked. "It's _we_! We'll do the rest!"

Cloud turned to Cid and smiled despite the lump in his throat. "Right. We'll do it. The hope she left us, we must strengthen it. Her voice has already reached the Planet. Just look at the glow of the white materia. But what about Holy? Why isn't Holy moving? Why?"

"Something's getting in its way," Bugenhagen offered.

Cloud knew immediately, and he in everyone else's faces that they did too. "…**him**…" He gazed up at the pale green glow of the white materia. The black materia had blazed purple before he had plunged into the bowels of the Planet. "He's the only one that could do it. Sephiroth."

"Yeah," Barret said, "But he… or she… uh, _it_, I s'pose, is kinda hard to get to."

"We'll find a way," Cloud said. "We have done incredible things, all of us. We just saw our lives projected here, the mountains we've climbed, the monsters we've faced. I don't want to speak for you, but I've come too far to give up. I have done… incredible things, and I intend to see them through until the end. No barrier is going to stop me."

Cloud stepped through the screen of water and back into the sunlight. Cait Sith stood at the far end of the catwalk, still shut off. Cloud walked towards him, and the rest of the party emerged from the falling water behind him. Cloud picked up the robot cat and slung him over his right shoulder. Yuffie picked up Mog with one hand, using levitation magic to make it as light as a feather.

They left the shrine and descended the staircase. When they reached the bottom, they were splashed by the muddy waterfall on the ancient ground, and they ran back towards the ship. Bugenhagen floated behind them, coughing lightly.

When the _Highwind _was in sight and the sound of rushing water nothing but a distant whisper, Cait Sith sprang to life and wriggled around on Cloud's shoulder.

"The cannon!" shouted the cat. "Where am I?!"

"What the?"

Cloud dropped the robot and it bounced to a halt on the stony ground. "Sorry about that," Cait Sith laughed lightly, "I was a little surprised."

"What happened?" Cloud asked. "Where did you go?"

"You remember when the Junon cannon disappeared? Actually, Rufus moved it."

"Moved it? That big thing? Where? Why?"

"Well, the cannon used to operate on the mako from the underwater reactor, which was siphoned into it through the huge materia. Without the huge materia, the cannon is rendered useless so they decided to move it around the same time that Operation: Starlight went into effect. That's why it's been moved to a place where mako can be properly siphoned into it."

"And where is that?"

"A place where tons of mako is gathered."

"And where is _that_?"


	137. Book 5: Diamond Weapon

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 30  
**

**Diamond Weapon  
**

The pollution clouds never re-appeared over the skies of Midgar, the sickly green and black smog was gone forever, it seemed. What loomed over the otherwise perfect lives of the plate-dwelling elite was Meteor, seemingly at all times of the day, blotting out the sun, casting its horrible red glow onto the moon (of which it now dwarfed in size).

The helicopter that flew towards the city from the west was unscheduled and unannounced, and the Turks were dispatched to investigate. Reno's helicopter was off the ground first, rising up in the red sky. He manoeuvred it towards the incoming helicopter, his slit-like eyes looking coldly at it. It was a Shinra helicopter – that much he knew (who else had helicopters, anyway?) and it was piloted by a man, some generic looking mook. The helicopter made no attempt to slow down, nor to avoid him approaching. Reno pivoted around as the incoming vehicle glided past him. Elena's helicopter was coming in fast and foolishly.

"This is Elena of the Turks," came her shrill announcement. "Identify yourself or be destroyed."

Reno rolled his eyes, and picked up the pace to follow the two helicopters.

"This is Shinra number 15, carrying personnel to Shinra Headquarters from Junon."

"Which personn—" Reno began, but Elena cut him off.

"Why was this not authorized?" She barked.

"I'm sorry, sir," the pilot said, "This was authorized, twenty minutes ago. Code 349928: an emergency flight."

Elena called back to Shinra Headquarters, where she was told that an emergency flight had indeed been ordered from Junon, carrying Turk personnel.

"Impossible," she said. "All Turks are accounted for."

Reno, meanwhile, was flying alongside the suspicious vehicle. "Hey, no more games. Open up the cabin and show us who's inside there."

The door of the helicopter slid open, and holding the door was a very ravaged looking Rude.

Reno nearly crashed his helicopter jumping out of his seat. "No way!" he laughed. He picked up his PHS and motioned for Rude to do the same. "Yo! We had you listed as dead!"

Rude smiled faintly. "Liar. I know as well as you that Turks aren't listed at all."

"Good to see you, man! What the hell happened after Rocket Town? We thought you got done in by AVALANCHE."

"It's a long story, so you know I'll never tell it all."

"Sure you will, you just need some beer. And a new shoe."

"Later," Rude leaned out of the cabin and looked down at the city rushing below him. "I came here to help with the operation."

"Too late, but if you hop on I can give you a real scenic tour."

Without hesitation, Rude leapt from the inside of the helicopter, launching himself towards Reno's. This caused Elena to emit a scream of fright.

Rude landed on the skids, ducking below the main rotor before the blades could detach his head. He slid open the cabin door and climbed inside.

"No more need for you, Shinra Number 15. You can just head back to Junon."

"Roger that." The helicopter peeled away from the other two, who were now approaching the bulking head of Shinra Headquarters.

Rude climbed into the cockpit and sat beside Reno. "You and me in the cockpit - just like old times," Reno smiled. "You smell just terrible. I mean, like, really _bad_. When was the last time you showered?"

"What kind of water are we talking about?"

"How about water that doesn't smell like the oldest whore in Wall Market? Seriously, were you rubbing fish all over yourself?"

"I'll talk about it later," Rude said. "Are… are you doing a fly-by?"

Reno smirked, "Just like old times!"

The helicopter they were in flew so close to the top floor of the Shinra building that the glass wall behind Rufus shook and trembled. The helicopter sped past the building and down overtop Sector 8. The scaffolding began as far in from the edge as the train station, rising up over the North Reactor and supporting the cannon.

Reno whooped with joy as the helicopter skimmed along the top of the cannon, which pointed north from Sector 8 like the dial of a compass.

"Enjoying yourself?" Rude asked.

"While I still can," Reno howled.

* * *

When the glass wall on the sixty-ninth floor stopped shaking, Rufus addressed his executive staff once more.

"Sorry for that. As I was saying, Reeve, that is why it is your job to adjust the reactors output."

"I see, sir."

Scarlet interrupted, "Don't worry about adjusting it, Reeve. Once you open it up all the way, everything will go full speed."

"I need to worry about Midgar's safety," Reeve sneered at Scarlet. "At best, giving the cannon full power from our seven working reactors will cause a full Midgar blackout for up to an hour. At worst, it could jeopardize the support pillars and the plate itself."

"Reeve is right," Rufus said, "He is the most familiar with the capabilities of the reactors, that's why I am entrusting that job to him. If anyone has any objections, they can address me after the meeting."

Heidegger laughed. "I have to commend you, Mr. President, on this latest strategy. Destroying Sephiroth is nothing short of brilliant. The idea that Meteor will also be destroyed is the most logical progression of thought."

"Thank you, Heidegger, for another dazzling display of bootlicking. We're not going through with it until one of you two brings me a magic user. Get a doctor, a SOLDIER. Someone expendable. I want tests done to see what happens when a caster is killed before the spell's completion. I don't want to waste time destroying Sephiroth if Meteor is going to hit anyway."

"Sir," Reeve said, "If I may, destroying Sephiroth is an amiable goal in any case. If Meteor hits and Sephiroth is allowed to absorb the massive surge in the Lifestream, he'll become nothing short of godly, and the Planet itself will die."

"When did you get so religious?" Heidegger scoffed. "Letting Hojo poison your mind?"

Rufus hushed him. "I will consider the consequences of attempting to destroy Sephiroth whether it will stop Meteor or not. As for the mako shells that Scarlet and the Gongagan doctor have developed?"

"We have had testing done and they look to be effective. When fired from the mako cannon, they should reach Knowlespole without issue. Kya, ha! We're in the process of loading the shells into the cannon now; we should be ready to fire in one hour. Since the cannon now fires shells instead of pure mako, I have renamed it the Sister Ray."

The helicopter that had performed the flyby landed on the strip outside the glass wall. Out climbed Reno and Rude – the latter looking a little worse for wear. They stepped merrily inside of the building.

"Reno and Rude," Rufus frowned, "Some navigational malfunctions, I presume?"

"Yes sir," Rude nodded.

"What news?"

"The _Gelnika_ is sunk, destroyed by Weapon."

"I see," Rufus said. "Rude, you can use magic, correct?"

"Correct."

"Has there ever been an instance in which the caster could be killed during a spell conjuring? Would that stop the spell?"

Rude hummed. "Normally, the spell is instantaneous. The only anomaly I can think of is summoning, in which the spell is so devastating that the caster is protected."

"How so?"

"When a creature is summoned, the caster is removed from this plane of existence and transported to another one until the spell has been completed."

"Do you think that Sephiroth is protected as long as he is casting Meteor?"

"I do not think so, for the report about the Knowlespole incident indicates that Jenova and Sephiroth did not disappear when casting Meteor, and that they remained on this plane of existence until Weapon awoke and they fell into the Planet. This probably means that Meteor works like a normal spell and not a summoning, meaning they are unprotected, but the damage is most likely done. An instantaneous casting, with a delayed aftermath. Truly the blackest of magic."

"So it's pointless to even try," Rufus said.

"I disagree," Reeve said. "More than our lives are at stake, Mr. President. Our immortal souls are on the verge of being consumed by the Calamity. If we are only to have a week left to live, we should prepare ourselves for what will happen afterwards."

"I will have to think about this." Rufus brushed the hair out of his face as his intercom buzzed to life, with Anna's frantic voice shouting through a message that none of them wanted to hear.

* * *

The navigation systems on the bridge of the _Highwind_ went berserk as Mog bounded aboard with Cait Sith screaming Cloud's name.

"Somebody get that damn cat off my bridge!" Cid snarled.

"I have urgent news for Cloud!" Cait Sith shouted. "It's Weapon!"

"What about Weapon? Which one?"

"One we haven't seen yet. It's been submerged in the ocean, but it isn't Sapphire or Emerald. It's been walking on the ocean floor."

"Creepy," Yuffie raised her lip.

"I take it that it's come up," Cloud looked at the cat. "Where?"

"It's coming out of the northern sea straight towards Midgar. It must have been attracted by all the mako being pumped into the cannon."

Cloud shrugged, "Can't the cannon destroy it? If it's coming from the north, it's walking right towards it."

"I don't know if it's ready or not."

Barret rushed forward "What's gonna happen to Marlene?!"

Cait Sith recoiled atop Mog's head, away from Barret. "Don't worry. Marlene's safe, she's with Aeris' mom. The hold they're in is indestructible."

Barret relaxed. For a few moments, no one on the bridge moved to act. They all simply looked at each other, shrugging and nodding.

Upon seeing this, the cat leaned forward and pounded his fists on Mog's head. "I see how it is. As long as Marlene's safe, who cares who else dies, right? We're talking about Midgar here – millions of people. People you've all been claiming to protect. Barret, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while. When you blew up the northern reactor, how many folks do you think died?!"

"That was for the life of the Planet," Barret grumbled, "Ya gotta expect a few casualties."

"A few? A few?! Might be a few to you, but it's everything to those who died. Protecting the Planet. Man, you all sure sound like heroes. No one can say word one against protectors of the Planet, not even when you sabotage an operation that could have destroyed Meteor."

"I don't wanna hear preachin' from no goddamn Shinra!" Barret stomped. "What about Sector 7, huh? Y'all destroyed your own cities just to get at us heroes. Buncha fuckin murderers."

"Stop it," Cloud said.

Cait Sith was still for a moment, small robotic gears clicking inside of him. He eventually leaned back. "Nothing I can do about that," he agreed. "I stood by and watched Sector 7 happen. You're right about me, I'm a murderer by association, but I've lived every day since then hating myself. Thinking of all those faces. What about you? You're a walking bomb, have you ever looked at the collateral damage that your good intentions caused?"

"Cait Sith," Tifa said, "Barret knows what he did. What we did in Midgar can't be forgotten no matter what the reason. And we haven't forgotten… Right?"

Barret said nothing and huffed to himself.

"I know you," Tifa said to Cait Sith. "You can't quit the company because you care about the people in Midgar, right?"

"That's the one part of myself," Cait Sith, "The one part of myself that I can't leave behind when I'm here with you."

Tifa turned to Cloud. "Well?"

"Okay," he ordered. "Let's go. We'll beat Weapon ourselves. We owe it to the people of Midgar."

"Uh, Cloud?" Cid asked, "Let's not make promises we can't keep, now. You haven't forgotten that it's Weapon, right? Big damn monster? Lots of magic beams and claws and shit? You think we got a chance of winning against it?"

"How would I know? But I've got a plan."

* * *

The very ground of the Wastelands was like volcanic ash, sucked dry of the life that once made it thrive. When Cloud stepped onto it again, he marvelled at their ability to make that horrid journey from Midgar to Kalm so many months ago.

Barret and Cid were on the ship with Cait Sith and the civilians; they piloted it away from them, leaving them standing on the shore.

Cloud couldn't even call it a beach, although it was a gradual decline into the water, and what they were standing on was more like sand than it was like anything else, but it had a distinct lack of being anything at all, like soap scum dried up from the ocean's receding and formulating a land mass.

Coming out of the water were the enormous, diamond encrusted shoulders of Weapon. They were each as long as the Highwind, like enormous stony pauldrons they sat atop its great diamond arms, dripping with the sea water it was rising out of. It had a glowing red plate where the heart should have been, with several plates of stone and diamond protecting it like a ribcage. As it continued to rise out of the water, slowly making its way towards them, Cloud looked at his friends and made the order.

"We summon in a row, starting with Tifa. Be mindful when you're summoning to protect all of us – we don't want anyone left behind when our guys are battling Weapon. Does everyone have their red materia?"

He looked and saw that everyone was holding their stones in their hand. "Good. As long as we hold the line and continually summon, we should be protected. If the person before you is killed, don't think, summon. Tifa, whenever you're ready."

Two enormous clawed hands emerged from the sea, and standing on the shore with a red materia in hand, Tifa closed her eyes and concentrated.

She fell into the stone and found herself in a hot swirling void. The presence within approached her mind.

"Long have I slept under the care of Godo. But you have snatched me from my resting place and now disturb my peace! What is your purpose here?"

_'I am here to destroy, under the command of the queen of Wutai, she who snatched you, and I command your aid.'_

"Prove your worth, human!"

After Tifa dissipated, leaving the rest of them to gape at the walking mountain, looming and twinkling above them, her palaver ended and they faded out of existence to watch the battle unfold.

Weapon stepped onto the solid ground as it began to crack around him. Smoke began to billow from the cracks, like the volcanic ash of the ground was giving way to some molten presence underneath.

Ahead of weapon, pieces of the ground exploded upwards and out of them leapt a monster wreathed in flame – a man shaped beast with enormous black horns, gnarled like trees, curling back behind it like demonic hair.

The monster was Ifrit, the Wutaian god of fire, and he roared a guttural noise that caused the flames around him to pulse and crackle. He exhaled smoke as his clawed hands began to grab the wreaths of flame circling his body. Upon grabbing them, he made them bigger, more intense. Soon, he was completely concealed in a ball of flame. When the last of his black horns were concealed he flew at Weapon's head, exploding on impact.

Weapon rocked back, the heat was so intense that the diamonds crowning his head had melted somewhat, and it made a cry of its own, piercing and horrible.

They reappeared on the ground before Weapon, and they had his attention. Tifa nearly collapsed, her will was exhausted after such a magical feat. Weapon screeched at her and moved to crush her with his enormous clawed foot. Cloud acted fast – he was next in line. He concentrated on Priscilla's amulet, and fell into the familiar ether.

At this point, talk was no longer necessary between Cloud and Shiva. She appeared in the mist and he gave his orders.

As the foot of Diamond Weapon came down towards Tifa, she disappeared back into the nothingness. Shiva descended from the sky – particles of ice in the cold air formed her figure in gorgeous, swirling motions. Shiva floated in front of the Weapon's great head, her hands outstretched. She exhaled serenely, but from her fingertips blasted a wind so cold it froze the very air, and thick ice spread from her fingers onto Weapon's face. As Cloud continued to cast – and Shiva continued to obey – the icy wind wrapped around Weapon, hindering his movement. He stepped forward once more, chunks of ice breaking off of him, only to reform.

When Cloud's will was spent, Shiva disappeared and the ice around Weapon shattered, falling off of his mountainous body onto the ashen ground.

The party reappeared ontop of huge slabs of ice, noticing that during the last summoning, Weapon had moved past their position and they were now facing his back.

"Yuffie!" Cloud cried.

Yuffie disappeared to council with Leviathan, and Nanaki readied the stone they had put in his headdress – Ramuh. Nanaki had never summoned before, and Cloud could tell he was nervous.

Before that became a problem, however, they all disappeared to follow Yuffie as Leviathan snaked up from the ocean behind Weapon, swimming through the air. The serpent was so long that even when it had wrapped itself completely around Weapon, its tail was still under the ocean behind them. Using his tidal force, Leviathan rocked Weapon back, and the monster took one step back towards the sea before the serpent caved in on all sides, the water pressure chipping away at Weapon's stony surface.

They reappeared behind Weapon once more. Nanaki closed his eye and it took a few moments for him to be taken away by the stone. Cloud hoped that Ramuh would spare Nanaki the moral preachings. Giving that stone to Nanaki was a wise choice, Cloud thought – because Nanaki was not human, not full of many of the flaws that Ramuh saw in humans, he might be willing to help.

But Nanaki was more like humans than he thought.

Weapon was turning around to face them. Cloud unclipped his sword. If he wanted to ponder Nanaki's humanity, he could do so later.

Yuffie, still weak from her casting, threw her shuriken at the monster, and it lodged itself in his shin. Yuffie cursed in her native tongue and ran forward to reclaim her weapon.

"Melee attacks won't hurt it!" Cloud ordered. "Hold the line, deflect his attacks, wait for Nanaki to summon."

But Nanaki was still gone, and Cloud had less and less hope for his success.

Suddenly, he felt reality give way to the void. In the place where they had been standing, great bolts of lightning struck the ground, still steaming with the molten rock and melting ice. As if agitated by the lightning striking it, the ground of the Wastelands shook to life, rising up as if in an earthquake. Lightning continued to hit the rising tier, and the bolts eventually became so many that they created a man. Ramuh stood atop the rocky plateau with his staff in hand. His long white beard whipped around him in the wind, and he raised the staff angrily.

"Turn back," Ramuh called at Weapon. "Your good intentions will only cause more suffering for the Planet!"

Weapon did not respond. Instead, it roared and swiped at Ramuh. The old man – just before impact – became nothing more than a collection of electric bolts, and they scattered in the air, twisting and twirling around Diamond Weapon's rocky form. The lightning seemed to do little damage to the monster – although the heat seared and melted more of the diamond armour around its heart. The personal mountain he had created also seemed to pop open with all of the electricity pumped into it, and bolts reached from the splitting earth to sear the stones on Weapon's clawed hand.

The party reappeared in the crumbling ruins of Ramuh's mountain – the air was still full of electricity, it made the hairs on the back of their necks stand up.

Vincent wasted no time in retreating into his stone. Cloud, in the meanwhile, ordered everyone to get behind the mound of wasted land that Ramuh had created. As they ran, he asked Tifa if she had enough strength to summon Ifrit again.

Whatever Tifa's respose was, Cloud never heard it, because the noise that emitted from Weapon was near-deafening. A blast of blue plasma shot from his mouth towards them and crashed into Tifa, knocking her back towards the sea.

Without hesitation, Cloud scrambled from his place of cover and ran towards where she had collapsed, not caring that Weapon was preparing another attack.

He had almost reached her when she faded out of sight, and he felt himself slip away as well.

Weapon, who had been preparing to fire another blast of energy, looked around for an opponent to fight.

The skies darkened as the creature that Vincent summoned blasted in from above. It spun down from the swirling storm-clouds, black leathery wings concealing its figure. When the wind ceased its howling, when the skies stopped their spinning, Bahamut, king of the dragons, unfurled himself in front of Diamond Weapon.

The two behemoths gazed at each other, and everything was still on the endlessly flat Wastelands around them.

Bahamut's wings flapped slowly, keeping him at eye level with the enormous Weapon. As if something was caught in his throat, his head began to convulse and rear back. Weapon did the same, and both creatures began to gather energy inside of their colossal maws.

Simultaneously, each fired electric blue balls of plasmic discharge at the other, streaking through the grey sky like flares. Bahamut's blasted into Weapon's protective casing around its heart, melting diamonds and chipping away at what was underneath – the tender workings of Weapon's core.

It was hard to tell if Weapon's blast hit and defeated Bahamut, or if the king of the dragons exploded as a final act of showmanship. If any worldly creature had a chance at defeating a summon creature, it was surely Weapon. The collision with the blast and the end of the summoning happened in tandem, causing a collection of grand explosions, the bleak sky was alight with reds, blues and pinks.

When the party was brought back into their proper plane, they were struck by the residual heat from the three-thousand degree firefight up above. Cloud fell to his knees under the extreme heat, breathing in short gasps.

The air cooled as the tongues of flame soaring through the sky swallowed themselves. When they got to their feet, they saw that Weapon had – in one giant step – moved over them. It was heading back towards the sea.

"We did it?" Yuffie watched the Weapon take enormous strides towards the water, shaking the ground as it walked. He arms trembled. "We did it!"

She leapt at Nanaki and they tumbled over onto the rotten soil, laughing.

Tifa and Cloud embraced tightly, and Vincent could barely contain his elation. "From whence you came, Weapon!" he laughed.

Cloud looked at Vincent. "Call the airship," he ordered lightly, "Tell them—"

Everyone's PHS rang at once. Yuffie and Nanaki stood up. Tifa let go of Cloud. Everyone picked up their communication devices and listened.

Cid was on. "Y'all better get back to the airship. Cait Sith says something big is coming. I mean, really big. Get a move on, numbskulls!"

The _Highwind_ streaked across the sky towards them. They ran from underneath Weapon's shadow as it stopped moving and turned once again towards Midgar.


	138. Book 5: Fear

Author's note: My computer died, sorry to anyone who has been waiting. Here's a short chapter, but I've recovered the book so it's all with me (and it's also sitting in about ten e-mail inboxes just in case) - the next update will be quick coming!

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon

* * *

**

**Chapter 31  
**

**Fear**

There were monitors, radios and paperwork on the desk where Cathal Shinra had taken his last breath. The ambrosial East Gate oak had been repaired where the Masamune had skewered the President through. The blood-soaked leather chair had been replaced by a much bigger one. The blood had washed off the ivory and there was no trace of the old regime.

Rufus Shinra was standing at the glass wall, overlooking the ruins of Sector 7, and Sector 8 – now obscured by the scaffolds, generators and - of course - the Sister Ray itself.

It was good to be alone. Before Dark Nation's death, Rufus couldn't stand it for more than five minutes. Even pleasant dreams about pastoral country sides were too lonely for his taste. Given a choice between those and the recurring nightmare about becoming his father, Rufus would have to think.

Since his presidency began nearly half a year ago, however, Rufus found a certain solace in those precious few moments alone. Now, 'being alone' wasn't quite what Rufus would call it – he would call it 'not being around other people.' It was the absence of the brown-nosing Heidegger and Scarlet, who laughed like comic book villains. The absence of Hojo's infectious insanity, of Reeve's pathetic ethical 'dilemmas,' of the Turks and their blunders, his secretary's incompetence, and most of all AVALANCHE. Every mention of their names was like plucking out hair. Being alone wasn't like being alone anymore; it was like taking a break from being together.

His solace was cut short by Heidegger's blaring laughter ripping through the intercom. "Mr. President! Preperations for the Sister Ray are now in order. Anytime is fine."

He walked slowly up to the intercom and connected with Heidegger and Scarlet. '_I hope I'm doing the right thing_,' he thought to himself.

"Fire," he ordered calmly.

* * *

One by one, the seven working reactors that sat like monoliths on Midgar's circular exterior increased their mako output by three hundred percent. The billowing green smoke that rose from each of them became frenzied pillars of green mako waste, flying up into the atmosphere.

Conduits had been connected to each of the reactors, and liquid mako began to flow through their channels into the Sister Ray.

They began to pump from the reactors in short spurts, as the output was controlled conservatively by Reeve Tuesti. As the process continued, the spurts became longer and more frequent as the output was increased. Eventually, it became a steady stream of mako, racing in seven channels from the reactors to the cannon, being altered there – like blood-bullets – into one enormous mako-shell.

The output became too liberal, and eventually all of the mako reactors were sucked dry. The streams of liquid mako ceased and the power in the seven cities went out.

There was silence and darkness all throughout Midgar. Without the artificial lights and the hum of machinery, it was like being deaf and blind. Citizens of Midgar realized that their ears had been ringing their entire lives, and only now was the air soft enough to notice.

The Sister Ray protruded outside of the northwest curve of Midgar's plate, full of swelling power but still and tense. At the end of the barrel, a blue halo began to form. As the energy of seven reactors culminated inside of the cannon, the halo was drawn inside the barrel. All the mako energy, molecular energy of the air around the Sister Ray, even the light was compressed into a single pinpoint inside of the cannon.

It fired. A colossal helix of energy launched from the Sister Ray and the cannon itself shook back from the power. Supporting structures collapsed around the cannon, and every window in the Shinra Tower shattered outwards from the force of the fire – including the glass wall.

The wind whirled through the top floor of the Shinra building, whipping Rufus' white coat around and throwing his carrot-orange hair into his face. Like clockwork, he brushed his hand through it and for once, it stayed in place.

* * *

Like a magic tug, everyone on the _Highwind_ felt the cannon fire, even though they were too far away from Midgar to see the blue blast streak over the Wastelands, nor the sheer force of the stream ripping the land apart.

They did see Diamond Weapon – when they had returned to the airship it had once again continued its march inland, and it was a far ways in now. The _Highwind_ circled around it as it moved. It made no move to stop them – it was distracted by something happening in the distance.

Suddenly, it stopped. It paused for a moment. Like mechanical doors, the massive stone plates it had for shoulders simply opened up, like the top half had been on hinges. Inside the enormous shoulders were countless orifices, like cannons.

The armour around Weapon's core began to shift and move. The partially melted outer layer – now not much more than a skeletal bar of singed stone – moved on its biological hinges up and over Weapon's head. The other two layers swang open to the left and right, exposing his glowing heart.

From the deck of the _Highwind_, Cait Sith saw the heart begin to absorb the light, heat and sound from the air around it. Much like the blue halo the Sister Ray had made, his puppeteer noted. Putting two and two together, the puppeteer began to run, switching off the robot for the time being.  
Cait Sith went limp on the deck of the airship, where everyone had gathered to watch Weapon's actions.

The claws on Weapon's feet dug into the ground, and the heart absorbed the spirit energy of the air as it began to fire yellow bullets at Midgar. It was most likely some new form of electric plasma, Cloud noted, but it looked like fire. Like tiny meteors. They fired in constant pulses from the orifices off into the distance.

"What is it firing at, do you suppose?" Tifa asked.

Nanaki gazed into the distance with his animal's eye. "Midgar," he said.

"Marlene!" Barret cried.

As the heart continued to absorb energy and pump it back out of the shoulder cannons, a blue streak suddenly flew in between the streams of energy bullets. The mako shell passed between them uninterrupted and hit Diamon Weapon directly in the heart.

The claws that had been dug in the ground flew up and Weapon was literally carried along the path of the mako shell until the shell passed through the stone and diamond exterior, flying off over the sea and further north.

Weapon, torn through at the heart, continued to fire the last of the fireballs it carried as it fell, and the angle of the very last – fired just before Weapon crashed into the ground – was altered very slightly.

The body of Diamond Weapon – hollowed and gushing with a purple and red substance – crashed into the Wastelands. Barret likened it to a mountain falling over on its side. It cracked and shook the foundation of the land. "Damn!" he said.

"It went directly through it," Nanaki observed.

"I see," Cloud watched the trail of the mako shell streak towards the north. "The target wasn't Weapon at all. They're after Sephiroth. The barrier over the northern crater!"

* * *

The mako shell flew over the sea. It flew over Bone Village, over the Corral Valley, over the snowy fields, the Great Glacier. It soared over Gaia's cliff and slammed into the dome of light that acted as a shield for the sinister doings underneath.

As the shell pounded against the barrier – the tail of energy colliding as well and building energy, the barrier began to wane. When the mako shell was gone, the barrier was disappearing. It shook, and then was swept away.

The northern crater was exposed to the sky.

* * *

The first of the fireballs streaked over the Midgar skyline, crashing into a skyscraper in Sector 5. After that, they just kept coming. The streets were awash with cries in every sector. "Weapon's attacking!" "Run for your lives!"

Rufus stood on the shards of the glass wall, looking down at the mayhem below. Smoking hunks of concrete crushed the panicking civilians. Concern for them sent warm chills up his spine. '_They must have scattered like that_,' he thought, '_when the meteorites hit. This is what Reeve and Heidegger had to bear witness to_.'

But it felt more familiar than that – a kind of primal memory.

An automated voice announced that the building's mako reactor had been hit, and then the power went out again.

Rufus was alone in the dark, with Rhonda's recorded message echoing along the ivory pillars. And like that, he understood.

'_No_,' he thought, '_This looks more like Sector 7. This is what my father had to bear witness to_.'

Hundreds of people died below him. He watched them, they were like ants.

'_So this is what it's like living in a world ruled by fear. Hmm. My father was better at it._'

One last fireball raced towards the Shinra Tower – gliding overtop the cannon directly at Rufus. He stood stolidly, arms at his sides, facing the oncoming fireball.

When it hit, the blast knocked Rufus back and he doubled over onto the desk. The monitors and paperwork blasted off and the mark of the masamune was uncovered before his eyes as the heat swallowed him. The walls and pillars of pearl and ivory were licked with flame, and the top two floors of the Shinra Headquarters were then obliterated, sending streaks of fire and blood into the dark sky.


	139. Book 5: The Sister Ray

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 32**

**The Sister Ray**

On the bridge of the airship, Cait Sith, riding atop Mog, ran aboard. The navigational equipment went haywire and crewmembers grumbled their discontent. Cait Sith bounded happily up. "Hey guys! We've received a report that the barrier has been destroyed."

"Rufus Shinra," Cloud was trying to believe it, "did a very good thing today."

"Everyone can do good things," Cait Sith said, "even Shinra."

Cloud looked at Cait Sith. "Are you… Rufus?"

Cait Sith laughed. "No! Right now I'd sure like to be though. He must just be so proud of himself, he _did_ do a very good thing, didn't he?"

"Damnit!" Barret yelled, "Doncha know that Weapon just fired at you?!"

"I know. As soon as I saw, I put myself in the vault with Marlene and Mrs. Gainsborough. I think it's over now, so I'm coming out."

"Good to know you're all safe," Cloud nodded. "But we can thank you – and Rufus – later. What happened to Sephiroth?"

"Bleer," Cid ordered, "Set a course for the Northern Crater."

Cloud thought. "Will, can the airship go inside?"

"Are you kidding me?" Cid laughed. "He's my student, ain't he? He could take this baby anywhere!"

The Highwind swung north along the path that the mako shell had taken. Cloud looked down at the sea, turbulent from the commotion skimming over it. Tifa walked up to him.

"Cloud, we have to think about the civilians on board."

"We'll have to get them to a new home, a safe-house. We can do that after we defeat Sephiroth, I'm not sure we want to waste any more time."

"You make it sound like we have no chance of failure."

"I'm not a big fan of 'what ifs'."

"But this is Jenova we're talking about. What _if_ we fail?"

"Then there won't be any need to escort them home. They'll die no matter what."

"Hm. I suppose you're right. But Cloud, if they only get one more week, don't you want to make them as comfortable as possible?"

He didn't have an answer for her. Cait Sith suddenly cried out, "Hold on!"

The cat was convulsing atop Mog. "Heidegger! Scarlet! What's going on?"

Mog's mouth opened and they heard unaltered voices. Heidegger's voice came through, "We're still unable to reach President Shinra, his secretary or anyone on the top two floors."

"Not about the President!" Reeve cried through Mog's mouth, "What's going on with the Sister Ray? The reactors output is increasing on its own."

"That's not wise!" Scarlet hissed, "It must cool for three hours or it will not work. Reeve, shut off the machine."

"We can't do that! It's inoperable! Someone has switched the machine over to mainframe operation, we can't operate it from here anymore. Heidegger, call the mainframe, Scar—"

"Why are you giving me orders?" Heidegger barked.

"Protocol's pretty moot at this point, isn't it? I don't give a damn who calls them, I'll do it…"

* * *

The mainframe had been built quickly, with no intention of ever being the centre of operations. Consequently, it was a slapdash collection of pipes and tubes on the floor, out-of-date monitors on a control board with four fold-out chairs. On one of the chairs, pounding wildly on an old keyboard was Hojo, cackling softly to himself.

"Just you wait, Sephiroth!" he giggled.

The intercom buzzed on beside him. "Hello? This is Reeve Tuesti. Who is this?"

"Sephiroth, ha ha, I'll give you all the mako you want!"

"Hojo? Stop this Hojo. The cannon – no, Midgar itself is in danger!"

More giggling. "One or two Midgars? It's a small price to pay."

"Hojo! HOJO!"

"Show me, Sephiroth. It should be near. Heh, heh! Go beyond the powers of science. Before your presence, science is powerless. I hate it, but I'll concede to it. Just… prove it to me. Show me. Let me see it. Ha, ha, ha!"

* * *

"Yo!" Barret shouted, "Do somethin' ya big cat!"

"We're sunk!" Cait Sith cried (and also Reeve cried from out of Mog's mouth), "Hojo's doing this on his own. He's really gone 'round the bend. I mean, he was always mad, but now he's incomprehensible. He's spouting gibberish. He's jeopardizing the whole city!"

"Reeve, can you shut down the reactors themselves?" Cloud asked.

"No," Cait Sith said, "For Operation: Sister Ray, we transferred all control over the reactors to the mainframe, which was supposed to be controlled by Shinra Headquarters. Hojo has managed to override that last step. We could shut off the valves manually, but the reactors have made a path for the energy to escape from below. If the output continues to increase without the open valves, it will flush out of those paths. And we can't try to stop the energy from gushing out…"

"An explosion!" Barret realized.

"This blast'll be way stronger than when the Sector 1 reactor blew up."

"Damn!" Barret said.

"So that's out of the question. We have to get to the mainframe and relinquish control."

"Must stop Hojo first," Vincent agreed. "Then we'll worry about the reactors output."

"Right," Cait Sith said – Reeve's voice was still coming through out of Mog's mouth.

"Who are you talking to?" Scarlet asked - also out of Mog's mouth.

"Looks like Cloud and the others are on their way. They're coming to aid with the Hojo situation, I don't want conflict." Reeve (and Cait Sith) said.

"Gya ha ha! Don't be so ludicrous! I don't recall you being authorized to give me orders! The Peace Preservation will give their best effort to make the enemy retreat or perish. Do you not recall their assassination attempt on me?"

"That's a private matter."

"The President's dead," Heidegger announced. "Without a vice president, I'm now in command."

"That's a lie, I was second in command!" Reeve protested.

"I'll not have any leader of the Planet fraternizing with the enemy. Consider this a coup. Guards!"

Ruffling noises were heard as Mog's mouth closed. Cait Sith spoke, no longer accompanied by Reeve's unaltered voice. "It looks like I'm being arrested. Sorry, everyone. Heidegger and Scarlet seem to be more committed to stopping you than stopping Hojo. I'm being led… into the vault again… I'll repeat: there's no one left who is trying to stop Hojo. You must come."

"We're already on our way," Cid exhaled smoke.

"Midgar's under martial law," Barret huffed, "There'll be no way we could slip into the slums."

"Heidegger's probably shut off the trains anyway," Cait Sith sighed.

"Hey, hey!" Cid protested, "Whaddya think we have the _Highwind_ for? If land won't work, we can go by air!"

They could see the metropolis on the horizon, and the sky blackened as they drew near. "Land in Midgar?" Cloud scoffed, "We'd be a big slow target."

Cid laughed, "You think I'd let my ship anywhere near Midgar's defense grid? No, we're going to be eight small targets."

Yuffie's jaw dropped. "You're insane, you know that? I can't soften everyone's fall at once!"

(Nanaki murmured to Barret, "Let the records show that Yuffie admitted she wasn't perfect.")

Cid walked off the bridge, raising his hand to signal everyone to follow him. "These babies are one-use only," he said as they walked past the doors to the conference room, "so you can imagine that I was saving them for a special occasion. Can't think of a better time than now."

When they were all on the stairs, Cid at the top, he pulled a lever down and the wall beside them slid open. Inside were nine parachutes.

* * *

The _Highwind_ soared above the pluming pollution. Since the meteorite storm, Midgar's air had been disturbed – the blanket of smog wasn't as thick. From the bridge below the passenger deck, Bleer navigated to the centre.

Cloud stood on the deck with one foot on the rail. "Here we go!" he called, and launched himself off of the airship. The wind blew him under the ship and safely past the propellers. Cid was directly behind him, jumping onto the rail and then off. Tifa grabbed the rail and hoisted herself over. Nanaki bounded clear of the rail.

As Cloud fell through the air, the wind batted his yellow hair into his eyes. The green lights glowed from the city – hundreds of kilometers below him.

It lay flat like a clock, rushing up at him; the seven reactors spewed their foggy waste from the edges of Midgar. Sector 7 was sunken and useless looking. Cloud had forgotten how _dark _it was. The skyscrapers were dark concrete and the streets were all blackbrick. Even without the smog above it, the sky was still black. Not even the harsh red light of Meteor penetrated the dome of eternal night that enveloped Midgar.

The upper city was rushing up at him far quicker than he expected. Before he knew it, he was falling past the charred top of Shinra Headquarters, then suddenly he fell past the Sister Ray. He pulled the chord as Cid had instructed. The pack on his back felt lighter – it tugged at him and his fall was jilted to a near stop.

He heard the sounds of parachutes deployed somewhere above him. He was upright now, holding onto the ropes. He glided between skyscrapers, with their dim yellow lights. The street was coming up, he bent his knees for the impact.

He landed on the blackbrick roads, near an overturned car, he stumbled a bit, and the billowy white nylon of the parachute blanketed over him.

He cut his way free.

The Sister Ray loomed above the skyscrapers, and enormous leafs of metal jutted out from it, bobbing idly. The air had a static quality in the aftermath of the cannon firing – like a cooling microwave. A slight wind busied between the buildings.

Mog hopped towards Cloud as the others landed. Cait Sith waved his arms frantically. "Heidegger and Scarlet are looking for you. The whole army is on their way. It's not safe to travel aboveground. We'll have to take the sewers."

* * *

Below the manhole, Cloud found himself in a confusing labyrinth. It was an unnervingly clean series of ladders, chambers, and chutes. The last time he had been forced into the sewers, it had been disgusting, filled with septic waste-water and scuttling rats – but it had been simple to navigate.

Without Cait Sith leading them along the pipework, through cavernous metal chambers and over endless falls into blackness, Cloud wouldn't have even known where to begin. Even as Mog bounded confidently along the corridors of the underground, Yuffie wasn't entirely convinced.

"Where the hell are you taking us?" She huffed, "All these damn pipes look the same."

"I built this city," Cait Sith chirped, "its life is my life."

They crawled through warping tunnels of sheet metal, climbed over grate fences. Most of the time, the areas were open. The ground would drop away into the black belly of the plate without notice, and they all had to keep on their guard.

"It's just this way!" Cait Sith exclaimed once or twice, leading them through ducts and doors. One was particularly thin (Barret conniped about it) but it led into a large tunnel that Cloud recognized.

The passage they entered was a throughway for trains. Old tracks passed underneath their feet.

"There won't be any trains today," Cait Sith said. "The cannon's mainframe is in Sector 8 – just this way!"

A voice cried out from behind them, "Who's there?!" Out of the darkness ran a blue-suited woman with a shock of blonde hair. Elena. "Oh no!" she cried. "_They're_ here! What are we going to do?!"

Reno stepped up behind her. "…Elena, don't act so weak."

Rude also stepped into the light. "We're Turks."

Elena stammered. "Yes sir. You're right."

The Turks stood facing the party, everyone sized each other up. Tifa avoided Rude's brief gaze. There was a brief moment when Elena, Reno, and Rude all looked at Vincent and stopped, for a brief moment. Recognition flashed across their faces. Cloud was taken aback. Vincent was asleep before they were born, but they looked at him like he was family. They steeled themselves against him and Rude gestured to Elena, who stood point.

"We've got work to do," Rude frowned at them.

Reno scratched his face, "I'm not really up for it, but…"

Elena glared at Cloud. "Our orders were to seek you out and… kill. Our company may be in turmoil, but an order is an order. That is the will and spirit of the Turks!"

Reno and Rude smirked at each other behind Elena's back. Cloud said nothing.

"What are you waiting for?" Elena asked.

Cloud shot a quick glance at Vincent. The old Turk's hand was at his gun, but he hadn't drawn yet. He was waiting for Cloud's word. Rude was staring at him from behind his sunglasses. Reno was rolling his tongue around in his mouth, looking bored. Elena stood at attention, she reminded Cloud of himself when he first donned the blue suit of an MP.

"Cute," Cloud said, "But we'll take a pass."

"You're showing pity?" Elena's eyes nearly popped from her head. "Don't take the Turks for fools!"

"Wait, Elena." Reno sighed.

Elena spun to face him. "Reno! You're not violating the order… are you?!"

"Shinra's finished," Reno said, eyeing Cloud up and down. "It's come down to this."

Elena looked at Rude, who was silent as always. "Rude?"

Reno walked up and patted her on the shoulder. "Elena, you were a great Turk."

Cloud couldn't see her face, but there was a long pause, and a few movements that looked like sobs. Reno shot them a knowing glance, and one final smile.

"Farewell. If we both survive…" he stopped himself there, and began to walk back into the darkness, laughing to himself. "If we can save our lives…"

Elena turned back to face them. Her eyes were red but she stood at attention still, her hands clasped behind her back. "Remember the spirit of the Turks!" She ran after Reno into the dusty blackness.

Rude nodded at them, thought for a moment, and nodded again. "Our mission is finished." He slowly walked away.

Vincent's hand relaxed. Cloud almost called out a farewell, but he thought better of it. They all turned and continued on their journey.

* * *

They were under Sector 8 when Cloud started to recognize the walls and ceiling. They looked the same as the rest of the train way, but it was the feeling that reminded him. His superhuman senses remembered this place, and when they came to an opening in the ceiling that led outside, Cloud recalled jumping into it – and onto a moving train – after his first mission with AVALANCHE.

Now, a tower of scaffolding had been erected on the tracks, and it shot up through the opening and high above them. It was the fifty-ninth support beam for the Sister Ray. The mainframe was almost directly above them.

Without hesitation, Cloud began to scale the scaffolding, back up through the opening in the town square and onto the blackbrick streets. Everyone followed him.

"The way to the mainframe is in the Sector 8 Station," Cait Sith advised. Cloud took a few steps and then noticed something strange. The ground was shaking.

Barret's eyes were fixed between two tall buildings. Something enormous and red was moving between them. "What the… _hell_ is that?!"

When the giant mech turned to meet their gaze, one of its four enormous clawed arms crashed into the corner of a building. Chunks of cement and a few terrified people fell onto the street below in a flattened pile.

The enormous robot clamped towards them slowly. Cloud was already sizing up its weakness. It was too slow to catch them, probably susceptible to lightning magic. The affable cannon mounted on its back was worrisome, though.

It stopped before them. The red armoured shell it had as a face opened up and inside of it, sitting in seats where the eyes had been, were Heidegger and Scarlet.

"Gyaa, haa, haa! Here they come!" Heidegger spat.

"Kyaa, haa, haa!" Scarlet retorted with her own devilish shriek. "The fools really showed up!"

_'They're going to gloat before they attack,'_ Cloud thought quickly, _'only one of us needs to get away to kill Hojo. But who?'_

"You sure did treat us like dogs until now!" Heidegger began.

Cloud was debating with himself. On the one hand, Nanaki was kidnapped, held, tattooed, experimented on and nearly forced to mate with a human. On the other hand, it was assumed that Hojo ruined Vincent's life. And, of course, Cloud wanted to drive the blade deep into Hojo's heart for all he had done.

"You killed off a lot of my precious soldiers!" Scarlet sneered at Tifa.

Heidegger coughed out another scratchy laugh. "But let's see how you fare against our Anti-Weapon artillery!"

Scarlet went on about her proud creation, and the ultimate destructive power. Cloud found it all a bore. He turned to Tifa and told her the plan. She nodded.

"Oh, and Tifa?" Cloud smiled, "Kick her ass."

Heidegger and Scarlet were getting ready to fight. The face plate closed over them and the mech suit came down upon them. Cloud, Vincent and Nanaki all slipped out behind them.


	140. Book 5: The Battle of Midgar

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 33**

**The Battle of Midgar**

It began to rain in Midgar – real rain, with water and lightning.

Yuffie and Cait Sith bolted through the streets of Sector 8. Yuffie guffawed at the clocks on every street corner. The Shinra Headquarters lay a few blocks away, but they could still hear the sounds of battle behind them.

"What if…" Yuffie posed, "I set you free and you turn on us."

"If the fact that Heidegger is destroying my city isn't proof enough, you'll just have to trust me."

"After you turned on us?"

"You're one to talk!"

Bullets sprayed through Mog's stuffed body and Yuffie jumped back. Mog continued to bound forward, unfazed.

Shinra MPs flooded in from all sides of an intersection.

"Summoning something would be ideal right now!" Cait Sith said, "Let's see a little Leviathan happening here!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Yuffie leapt out of the way of oncoming bullets. She slung her shuriken in their direction. "I haven't slept since we fought _Weapon_! My soul is worn out." She landed. An MP was on her. She kicked his legs out from underneath him. When she stood, she yelled at Cait Sith. "If you got off your ass and did some magic for a change maybe you'd understand, Reeve!" Her shuriken returned to her hand, stained with blood. She whispered to herself, "Forty-five hundred, on the dot."

Mog's arms were swinging and knocking footsoldiers off their feet. Bullets shattered nearby windows. When a path had been cleared, Yuffie and Cait Sith sprang through the crowd and up the stairs into the Shinra building.

* * *

The claws of the Anti-Weapon suit were slow and thick. The only person who had trouble dodging them was Barret. The red armoured suit stuck a claw in his side and he stumbled back bleeding. He fired furiously.

Tifa hurled fire spells at its head. They singed the armour but had no other effect. A small gun protruded from its knee and sprayed fire back at her.

She threw a stream of fire at the oncoming flames. The two blasts met head on. Fire pressed against itself. Her soul felt weary – she not had a break since summoning Ifrit.

As her flames began to wane, the flamethrower on Scarlet's machine increased its power, and a clawed hand swooped towards her.

Cid grabbed her by her suspenders and threw her to safety as the last of her magic died away. Tifa landed on her back and Cid knelt over her. "Take 'er easy, there, kiddo!" He stood up and reached a hand out towards Barret. Tifa felt a brief magic tug from the Captain. Across the courtyard, Barret's bleeding stopped.

* * *

The centerpiece of the Sector 8 train station was now tilted. The clock had stopped ticking. Pressing against it was a newly built staircase winding up. Cloud, Vincent and Nanaki ran towards it.

Cloud noticed the trap before Vincent did. He hurled a bolt of lightning at the hiding MPs. Vincent hadn't been far behind. He pulled out his gun and fired true – into the heads of several crouching MPs.

The station erupted in mayhem. Cloud and Vincent sailed through the air like acrobats. MPs fired from both sides of them. Cloud soared over and slipped under the streams. The bullets sailed straight through to hit the MPs on the other side.

In one quick leap, Nanaki was at the top of the staircase, preparing a large spell.

Vincent flipped onto the first few stairs and fired again. Cloud's sword was out, blocking the bullets and cutting into his enemies.

Nanaki sucked the universe into his soul and out of him exploded an enormous shockwave, which affected all the MPs around Cloud but not Cloud himself.

The ambushers hit the ground and magical ice picks stabbed into them before shattering back into the nether.

Cloud felt cold, but unharmed. He ran up the staircase to meet his friends, and together they wound up the tower towards the Sister Ray's mainframe.

* * *

Commanders dressed in red came at Yuffie with batons, and she leapt and knocked them out with her feet. Mog's fortified arms knocked guards off of the staircase and down the rotunda into the Shinra lobby, where they landed on car models and other bodies.

Yuffie glanced at the roboguards hanging from the ceiling and thanked the gods that they were still motionless. "What level is the prison on?"

"Sixty-seven," Cait Sith said. "And after you free me, we want to go to the sixty-fifth. There's a model of Midgar there, but it's also the main robotics programming centre. For emergencies."

"You'd call this an emergency? Please." She drew one of the shuriken's four blades across a commanders throat and crimson blood spilled onto his crimson coat. He fell off the stairs and onto a blank podium where a truck on display had been stolen months previous. "(Four-five-oh-one.) Tifa, Barret and Cid have that big goofy robot in pieces by now."

* * *

"Barret! It's kneeling down again!"

"Watch that big ass cannon, Barret!"

"Mind y'own now! Ya gotta fight fire with fire!"

Blood bullets clanked harmlessly against the red armour as the mako engine inside the mech heated up. Barret leapt to his right. A blue blast tore up the blackbrick where he had been standing. Smoke trailed away from the cannon mounted on the mech's back. It stood up again, slowly. Cid leapt and jammed his spear into the joints.

"Where the hell did everyone else go?!"

* * *

The static wind was blowing wildly around the mainframe. It was quiet – the noises from the battle far below were too quiet; even if they were loud, they were of no concern to Hojo, who stood at the controls and watched the pressure gauge slowly rise. The only sounds were of the wind, and the gentle rain pattering against the grated floor of the mainframe.

Cloud, Vincent and Nanaki moved up behind him. "Hojo!" Cloud announced. "Stop right there!"

Hojo recognized the voice. "Oh. The failure."

"At least you can remember my name! It's Cloud."

Hojo didn't take his eyes or his hands off the console. "Every time I see you, I… it pains me that I had such little scientific sense. I evaluated you as a failed project, but you are the only one who succeeded as a Sephiroth clone." He tittered a bit. "I'm even beginning to hate myself."

"None of that matters," Cloud snapped, "just stop this nonsense!"

"Nonsense? Oh this. Ha, ha, ha. Sephiroth seems to be counting on the energy. So I'm going to lend him a hand."

Cloud's jaw dropped. "Why?! Why would you do that?!"

"Quit asking me why, you moron!" Hojo turned to face them for the first time. He only then noticed that Cloud was flanked by Nanaki and Vincent. Something flickered in his eyes, but he smiled at Cloud. "Come to think of it, you'd be cut out to be a scientist. Forget what I said, keep asking questions. Learning how wrong you are is good for the soul." He returned to the monitor. "Energy level is at eighty-three percent. It's taking too long."

He pounded away at the controls. "My son is in need of power, and help. That is the reason why."

"Your _son_?!" Cloud cried.

"_Your_ son?!" Vincent cried.

Hojo laughed. "Although, he doesn't know. What will Sephiroth think when he finds out I'm his father? Always looking down on me like that."

"Sephiroth was your son?" Cloud tried to wrap his head around it.

"_Is_ my son! _Is_ my son! No offspring of mine could relinquish control of himself to Jenova. He wouldn't have it!"

"He's gone round the bend." Nanaki bared his teeth.

Vincent stepped forward, no longer able to resist pulling the gun from its holster. "I was wrong," he snarled, "the one who should have slept was YOU! HOJO!!"

A single bullet tore through the static air and blasted through the brow of Hojo's nose. His head snapped back and he collapsed on the console behind him. Vincent stood holding the gun up, and as a thin trail of smoke hissed from the barrel, his hand started to shake. He lowered the gun slowly and took a long breath out. "It's over."

Hojo began to giggle. "Not yet!" He stood up shakily. Blood trailed down his hooked nose and into his smiling mouth. His teeth were covered in blood. His eyes looked dead. "I injected myself with Jenova cells. Hee, hee, hee! Here are… hee, hee… my results!"

Hojo seemed to burst out of his skin as if it were a ragged cloth. What was underneath was a horrific caricature of himself, twice as large with deformed features and the colour of his insides.

_'This is Jenova's doing!'_ Cloud knew. _'But he can't still have the cells inside of him. Jenova collected them all from me and Nanaki at the Crater! He was there, with us. Already poisoned by her. And now he's a monster. But he can't still have her cells inside of him. Just _touched_, like we are. He must be mortal.'_

Cloud pulled out his sword and raced towards him. _'Let's find out!'_

* * *

Rain pelted onto the Anti-Weapon artillery. Barret shook his head to get the water out of his eyes. He rolled out of the way as a huge claw reached for him. It missed him and stabbed into the street.

Tifa kicked it with her powerful legs and one of the claws snapped nearly off. Sparks danced up the mech's arm.

The trudging of feet in the rain grew louder from ahead in the distance. Cid looked and saw the army coming. "We've got more company! Barret, put that arm of yours to use for a change!"

Barret stood at his range and fired indiscriminately.

MPs dropped.

The MPs behind them climbed over their bodies and returned fire. Barret killed them before they could properly aim.

Tifa had regained some of her strength and blasted the mech with another large fire spell.

MPs ran from between its legs and attacked Tifa with their batons. She did them in easily. Some of them hung back and fired at her from range. She ducked behind the mech's great red legs.

"Too many of 'em!" Cid emitted expletives as he pulled his spear out from the dent it had made in the armour.

"Don't look now!" Barret ran towards them, "But we got bigger troubles'n that!" He fired again and dropped some MPs, but from behind them was a sight that made the bones in Tifa's body shake.

Row upon row of roboguards stalked through the streets. Their arm cannons were charged. Their red scanners were searching.

"Fall back!" Tifa cried. "We can't win against them!"

"Robots?" Cid asked as he threw his spear into an MP. "What's the big deal?"

Barret was retreating towards the train station. "They're a big fuckin' deal!" He fired as he fell back, and more MPs took their last bloody breath.

The Anti-Weapon artillery was on its knees again, and the portable mako cannon bristled with energy once more.

The roboguards saddled up beside the mech and stopped moving.

Barret wasn't sure where to point his gun-arm.

Tifa braced for the worst.

One of the roboguards turned towards the Anti-Weapon artillery and fired its beam cannon at the mako engine in the back. Barret was so taken aback that he dropped his arm in shock.

A second roboguard followed suite. When the third roboguard fired on Heidegger and Scarlet, Tifa helped them out with a hurling fireball.

Some of the MPs scattered right away. Others tried to attack the roboguards, but they were quickly killed by the roboguard's beam cannons. Barret picked off the few remaining MPs who were stunned by the attack, but he was no less confused.

"What the hell is going on?!"

The streets were filled with MPs and roboguards locked in battle. The Anti-Weapon artillery was too slow and the particle beams cracked and melted the armour.

The mako engine in the back exploded, and the canon fell from its mounted position on its back. The mech suit began to convulse. Blue sparks began to weave around it.

From behind a cluster of roboguards, Mog appeared. His fur and feathers were disheveled, but Cait Sith sat upon him proudly.

The cat yelled into a megaphone. "All roboguards cease fire on Heidegger and Scarlet."

Tifa ran towards Cait Sith. "You did this?"

"No… and yes," the cat replied, "Reeve did."

The roboguards lowered their gun-arms and stood at attention. The faceplate that protected Heidegger and Scarlet was hanging loosely by its hinges. Barret aimed carefully and fired at the hinges, and the plate fell off.

Heidegger was already dead. His beard had burned to the scarred throat. His hands still twitched with the volts coursing through him. Scarlet was screaming, her face was black and charred.

Barret fired a few volleys into her arm. The burned skin peeled away from her skeletal limb, and she howled her last howl, falling limply over. The mech suit hissed and coughed – motionless.

* * *

The buster sword removed chunks of rotting flesh from the monster as it wailed.

Even in his mutated state, Hojo was hopeless against his three adversaries. Vincent fired round after round into the creature's twisted head. Nanaki was a thrashing blur of teeth and claws. They relentlessly attacked – for Aeris, for Lucrecia, and even for the crimes against the infant Sephiroth.

Hojo's monstrous form was reduced to a pile of guts and bones, no longer resisting their onslaught. The rain washed the blood through the grating and down towards Arkaim Street, where Cloud and Aeris had first met.

Cloud stabbed the buster sword through Hojo's cadaver one final time. It made a squishy thud.

"Hojo…" Vincent looked at it. "Rest in peace."

From the lifeless cadaver, Hojo's voice cackled, "No."

The bloody remains of Hojo seemed to melt away, draining through the floor. Wind and rain whirled around the mainframe, and lightning cracked over Sector 5.

Before them appeared a humanoid monster. It seemed featureless and bleak. Instead of a face, it had a white flat surface. Behind its head was a long tentacle that wrapped around its body. It hovered above the ground.

From it boomed the voice of Hojo. "I cannot die!"

Vincent began to shake again. His gun clattered to the floor. Cloud turned to him, and he was about to ask him if he was okay, but he was suddenly repulsed.

Vincent was giving off an air that felt uncomfortable, such that Cloud was forced to turn away.

The life form they knew as Hojo was upon Nanaki in a heartbeat, stabbing into him with its tentacle. Nanaki was thrown towards the rail.

Cloud picked up his sword and leapt at Hojo but the final mutation of the scientist sailed out of range as the sword cut through nothing but air. Cloud landed and dodged the scythe-like stinger on the lifeform's tentacle came down. Cloud swung at it, but again it was too quick, and wrapped around the lifeform once more.

_'Can I even call it Hojo anymore?'_ Cloud thought.

Vincent's cape snapped off of him. He was shaking uncontrollably. Cloud recognized the first few stages of transformation, but had never seen Vincent resist like this.

"…No!" Vincent clutched his head with his clawed arm. From his back exploded leathery black wings. They spread viciously.

The feeling of evil that Vincent was giving off was distracting, and before Cloud could react Hojo was upon him again, swiping at him with his curling tail. The sharp end prodded into Cloud, but he ripped it out of him and stumbled away from both Hojo and Vincent.

Vincent's face became black and hard as stone, and two great horns jutted behind his head as all of his hair fell off and flew into the rainy skies.

His clothes exploded to reveal a body that looked like it was made of boulders, held together by a dark mist.

Hojo stopped his attacks and gazed at Vincent's new form – this dark man with dragon's wings.

Cloud felt incensed by his presence, like the existence of this new creature was opening up an old wound. Nanaki growled at Vincent as well, more provoked by their ally than by Hojo.

Hojo hovered slowly towards the creature. "Chaos?" he asked.

Cloud and Nanaki shot Hojo a look. They recognized that name.

Chaos shivered and snarled, saying nothing.

"It worked?" Hojo laughed, "My alchemy worked! How brilliant I am! I have transported summon creatures into the souls of humans! What of the others? What of your minions? Speak to me Chaos! Is there also inside of you the Galian Beast? The Death Gigas? The Hell Masker? Those worthless materia were drained of all their power… but _yours_! Hee, hee! An infinite supply of fear does the Lifestream have, and you are it!"

"Enough!" Chaos boomed. It was very much like Vincent's own voice, but with another voice on top of it – black and animal. "Now, the world burns!"

With a great flapping of his wings, Chaos rose from the steel ground and soared towards Hojo. Hojo screamed, "Success! Success!"

He was silenced in a final horrific splattering.

Chaos turned his glowing red eyes upon Cloud and Nanaki.

"Vincent!" Cloud called. "You mustn't lose control!"

Chaos laughed. "I am unleashed, and my will is God!"

He hurled his arms forward, and from his palms blew forth a shockwave that knocked Cloud back against the rail.

The metal bent with the force of it. Cloud tilted precariously over the edge, and the fall beyond it. Rainwater pelted at him, weighing him towards the fall. He pushed himself forward. "You have served your purpose, Chaos. Now leave!"

"I am enshrined in no crystal! I live in the very warp and weft of reality!" Chaos flapped his broad, sharp wings and rose from the ground. "I am existence itself!"

He hovered there before them, before touching back down. "I am free. Vincent is in the dark, with the beast, the gigas and the masker. I trust he is in too much pain to hear you."

Cloud remembered the pain that he felt inside the huge materia. There was nothing else.

He yelled at the demon in any case. "You can be beaten! The others were. Come on, Vincent!"

Barret arrived at the top of the staircase, grabbing the hatch on his gun-arm. "This worked last time!" He growled as he pulled the trigger and blood bullets blasted towards Chaos.

Chaos turned to accept them. They seemed to be absorbed right into him.

The black demon laughed. "Your slings and volleys will only hit your friend."

Nanaki growled. "If Vincent dies, you too shall pass from this realm. Cloud, it might be worth consideration."

"Then the decision is up to you." Chaos smiled. He hurled another shockwave in Nanaki's direction. The blast hit the red beast and he was thrown over the rail.

Cloud rushed to the edge to watch Nanaki fall. From behind him, Chaos laughed horribly. "But I shan't go without a fight! Enough idle chatter, I want destruction!"

Chaos rose up and out of wings shot black fireballs. They crashed into the mainframe console. It was obliterated by the black flame.

Explosions rocked the cannon all along the barrel. It fell silent.

Tifa moved up behind Barret. "Vincent! You can beat him from the inside! Come through! We all escaped from him, you can too!"

Yuffie was behind her, holding Vincent's crimson cape. "Please," she said.

Chaos shot a look in their direction and twitched. "Begone!"

He hurled another black fireball. It streaked through the sky. It collided with the distant Shinra Headquarters. Chunks of the tower fell. They crushed lesser buildings.

Cloud turned from the ledge – Nanaki had landed on his feet, but even for a beast like him, he was badly hurt. Cloud held his sword, unsure of what to do. He called out, "I won't destroy my friend for your sake!"

"Then you will die!" Chaos raced towards Cloud, talons outstretched. Cloud's sword deflected the attacks and he ducked to let the demon fly by him.

"Vincent!" Yuffie cried. Chaos landed with a thud back on the grating. He was clutching his head.

"N… no!" howled the demon. His wings were twitching. "NO!"

"Come on, then!" Cid cheered from the stairs. "Swim against the current, old buddy!"

Chaos's form was crumpling. The wings were snapping apart. The black, rocky form was softening, moving from black to ash grey, lighter and lighter, to a pale colour. The demon bellowed and shrieked. He was shrinking.

When Yuffie judged it safe enough, she ran up to the crumpling figure and wrapped Vincent's cape around it. The horns shattered into dust and black hair covered the demon's face as it curled into a fetal position underneath the cape.

The echoes of Chaos's roaring died away, and all that was left was the sound of the wind and the rain. Everyone took a breath, watching the figure underneath the red cape twitch and convulse.

Vincent's naked head and arm came out from beneath it. "Cloud," he gasped. "I could not control him. My anger for Hojo was too strong. I became anger itself. It fed off of my fear, off of my self-doubt. Tell me, is it over?"

Cloud knelt beside him. "It's over. You subdued Chaos. Vincent… I had no idea."

"Nor had I, until the moment arrived. I was asking about Hojo. Is he gone?"

Cloud smiled a little. Rain dripped into his mouth. "Yes, my dear friend. All of your sins are forgiven."


	141. Book 5: One Week More

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V  
**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 34**

**One Week More**

Cloud ordered everyone to the bridge of the _Highwind_. Some of them were still limping from the damage they had procured in the battle of Midgar. The amount of healing spells they were using had left them exhausted. When they were all gathered, Cait Sith said, "Shinra's… finished."

Cloud was looking up at the red rock in the sky. "Meteor's gonna fall in about seven more days, according to Shinra's last calculation."

Nanaki stepped forward. "Grandpa confirmed it."

"Nanaki… you want to see everyone in Cosmo Canyon again?"

Nanaki sighed. "Yes."

"…and, Barret. You want to see Marlene, right?"

Barret frowned. "Don't ask me that."

Cloud shook his head. "We'll beat Sephiroth. Then, if Holy doesn't move in seven days… there won't be a Planet left to protect." A shrug. "If we can't beat Sephiroth… it's as good as death for us. We'll just go a few days sooner than the rest who'll die from Meteor."

Barret's frown deepened. "Don't be thinkin' you're gonna lose before ya even fight!"

"No! What I meant was… if you choose to fight, you may lose what little time you have left with Marlene." There was a silence aboard the bridge. Only the thrumming of machinery echoed around them. Cloud continued. "What are we fighting for? 'Saving the Planet' sounds nice, but I don't think it's that simple. We're here for a reason. For me, this is a personal feud. I have to destroy Sephiroth and settle my past. Saving the Planet just happens to be a part of that. But knowing that, I'm going into that crater prepared. It gives me the strength to continue. I can't speak for the rest of you. 'Saving the Planet' might not be a good enough reason when we face whatever is down there. We might lose our nerve."

Barret scratched his head. "'Saving the Planet' was enough when we were bombin' reactors."

"Was it? It wasn't getting back at Shinra, for destroying Corel? For taking your arm? This isn't Shinra we're facing."

"He's right," Cid interjected, "being a hero isn't going to sound so nice when you're surrounded by monsters."

Barret looked at all of them. "Well, then yeah. I'm fighting for Marlene."

Cloud nodded. "Go and see her. Make sure you're right, and come back. All of you. Get off the ship and find out your reasons for yourselves. I want you to make sure. Then I want you to come back, ready to fight."

Cid puffed on his cigarette. "Maybe ain't none of us'll come back. Meteor's just gonna kill us anyway. Let's just forget any more useless struggling!"

Cloud thought on this. "If you can't find a reason to brave the dangers ahead… if nothing is enough to give you the gall to follow me… If you don't find it, that's okay too. You can't fight without a reason, right? So I won't hold it against you if you don't come back."

* * *

_The Highwind_ made a pass around the world, dropping off members of AVALANCHE. Barret arrived in Midgar with plans to take Marlene to Kalm. Reeve was ushering citizens from the plate into the slums – as a kind of shelter from Meteor's imminent fall. Cait Sith lay lifeless in his quarters. Yuffie returned to Wutai, to bury her father and to take over as queen. Cid, Shera and Priscilla went to Rocket. Vincent went to Lucrecia's side, to sit and ponder. As they approached Cosmo Canyon, the engineers gave Cloud a primer on how to run the ship. And he shakily navigated the vessel to the homes of the engineers, until the floating town was completely empty except for two people.

"What are you going to do, Tifa?"

"Did you forget? I'm all alone. I don't have anywhere to go."

* * *

"Grandfather!"

In Bugenhagen's observatory tower, on the second tier (between the orrery and the telescope) there was a small bed, a small table and a sofa. Bugenhagen lay on the couch, all of his materia were dark and lifeless. He was flopped upon it. When Nanaki arrived by his side, the old man's eyes fluttered open. He didn't make any movements.

"Nanaki…?You're still… here?"

"I can't leave you like this, Grandfather. It is my duty, as Seto's son, to guard this canyon and her people."

"Listen… Nanaki. I think you may already know. If you have any mission in life, it is not to defend this valley. Look at the withering mountain grass. Listen to the warble of newborn chocobos. Look always to the eternal flow of time, far greater than the span of a human life. It will teach you more than all the elders in the Valley of the Fallen Star… What you see will eventually become part of life's dream."

Nanaki was unsure if Bugenhagen had meant to say 'Lifestream.' The old man's health had faded rapidly throughout the week. Nanaki would move from Bugenhagen's side to wandering through the canyon, keeping the Cosmo Candle lit.

"Please… Nanaki… go with Cloud… Hoo, hoo. Don't look at me like that. I'm all right. It's a wide world and you must go out and see it. Who knows. Perhaps you may find your life's mate. You never know."

Bugenhagen stretched out his arm to the small table, and a withered finger extended shakily from the sleeve. "A parting gift. I think it will look good on you now. Ho, ho…"

Nanaki looked at the table. A bladed headdress sat upon it, with six feathered blades. It was magnificent. The beast turned to look at Bugenhagen.

The arm had fallen slack, the finger curled lightly. He lay lifeless on the sofa. Nanaki was too young to cry, but he rested his head on Bugenhagen's unmoving chest. "Grandfather…"

* * *

A wind rustled past the rocks that jutted out from the grass. The _Highwind_ hovered gently above the plains, roped and anchored to the ground. Cloud and Tifa stood on the grass – they each looked in different directions. They scanned the horizon for oncoming vehicles – buggies, cars, bikes. Anything that would bring their friends back to them.

"Everyone's gone." Tifa said. "No one is coming back."

"We have until the morning before we know for sure. Everyone has this irreplaceable something they're holding on to. That's how we made it this far together. But this time, our opponent…"

Tifa hummed, and the breeze blew her long black hair into her face. "But that's all right. Even if no one comes back, as long as I'm with you… as long as you're by my side, I won't give up – even if I'm scared."

Cloud turned and looked at her – her back was to him, her hands were holding each other behind her back. She stared out into the open field. He said her name.

"No matter how close we are," she said, "we were far apart before this. But when we were in the Lifestream, surrounded by all those screams of anguish, I thought I heard your voice." She dropped her arms to her sides and Cloud could make out a faint sniff. "You probably don't remember this, but deep in my heart I heard you calling my name. Or, at least, I think I did."

"Yeah… back then, I heard you calling me. You were calling me back in from the stream of consciousness in the Lifestream. After all, I promised. If anything were to ever happen to you, I would come help."

"Cloud…? Do you think the stars can hear us? Do you think they see how hard we're fighting for them?"

"I dunno. But, whether they are or not, we still have to do what we can. And believe in ourselves. Someday we'll find the answer. Right, Tifa? That's what I learned from you when I was in the Lifestream."

"Yeah… that's right…"

"Hey, Tifa… I… There are a lot of things I wanted to talk to you about." He shook his head slowly. "But now that we're together like this, I don't know what I really wanted to say. I guess nothing's changed at all. Kind of makes you want to laugh."

Tifa turned to face him, her eyes closed. "Cloud… Words aren't the only way to tell someone what you're thinking…"

The wind slowed to a gentle whisper. The night dimmed to just Meteor's red glare.

* * *

The wind should have been warmer that morning. It should not have been so biting, such a sharp reminder of the ruined world. The warmth of Tifa's hair curling around his torso, her faint, sleeping breath on his nipple, her legs around him - these things were not shields, not barriers. They were a candle's flame in the open evening. The wind wouldn't fan her, it would put her out. He wrapped his arms a little tighter around her and stared up. The comet had crested over the horizon before the sunrise, and it hovered, ever bigger, dwindling along its crash course with the Planet. Its red glow had made its own morning - the sun made little difference now.

_'It won't be cold for long,'_ Cloud thought. _'No, pretty soon it'll be plenty hot.'_

Tifa nudged a bit against him, swallowed and became still. Cloud stared down at her, leaning on him.

"It's almost dawn," he said. She squirmed a little on top of him, not quite awake. Cloud leaned his head forward so their hair pressed together. "Morning, Tifa. It's almost dawn."

"Mmm..." she started, but her eyes darted open and she took her head off of his chest. Her fingers grabbed at his sides, as if she was expecting to wake up mid-battle. She froze like that, under Meteor's glow. Her hair still snaked around him, cascading from her head to him to the rocky ground. Their eyes met.

"Good morning, Cloud," she said completely lucidly. Almost as suddenly, her head began to slowly lean back into him. "Give me a little longer..." she was talking into his skin now. "Just a little bit longer." Her eyes fluttered shut. "This day will never come again... so let me have this moment."

The first rays of sunlight penetrated Meteor's red morning. The horizon was a thin line of green. Cloud rested his head against the rock. Not a monster in sight. The mayor's daughter in his arms. A nice, cool breeze. As far as apocalypses go, he could imagine worse.

* * *

Cloud and Tifa climbed the ladder back onto the airship's passenger deck. Before entering the ship, Cloud looked one last time over the Wastelands. The ashen vista was expansive, but bare. No approaching buggies, planes, chocobos, no trucks, no foot travelers.

Tifa was already inside, and Cloud ran to catch up with her. She trudged down the steps slowly. "The airship seems a little too big. Too big and lonely. Everyone's gone," she admitted softly.

"Yeah, it's gonna be tough," Cloud said. As the words came out, he realized that they were probably not the most comforting things to hear. "Don't worry, though. We won't have enough time to feel lonely! I'll make a big enough ruckus for everyone."

She looked at him and smiled, but the ship lurched so suddenly that she tumbled onto him, and he slammed back against the wall as gravity pressed them together. The calm din of the idle engines roared in wakefulness.

"We're moving?" Cloud asked. He exchanged an alarmed look with Tifa, and they released each other and charged towards the bridge.

* * *

Cid was handling the great wooden wheel of the _Highwind_ with a calm precision, although he was cursing wildly at the dark, hulking figure standing at the window.

"Goddamnit, Barret! Of _course_ they're on board! It doesn't take a fucking hour to climb into the _Highwind_ unless you're missing an arm."

"Hey, thassa low blow!"

"Cid!" Tifa cried. "Barret!"

Barret turned at the sound of Cloud's voice. "Oh, hey! Is... is it cool if we come back?"

Cid sniggered. "Yeah, we won't be intruding?"

Tifa's smile dropped. "How long have you been here?"

Nanaki approached from the alcove of the bridge. "About time you returned to the ship!"

Cid pointed at Nanaki, "Shh! If you butt in now, we might miss something juicy!"

Tifa froze in place. "Were you... watching!?"

Barret stammered, "Uh... watching ain't the right word."

Tifa turned a unique shade of red -- one that none of them had seen yet. Her fists were clenched tightly. She didn't even turn to see whose boots were clanging onto the bridge.

Everyone else, however, looked at the entranceway to see the red cape swishing towards them.

Cloud smiled, bewildered. "Vincent!" He was so elated to see his friends, modesty had little place here, now. Besides, it looked like Tifa was embarrassed enough for the both of them.

"Why the puzzled look?" Vincent looked around the room. "Am I not welcome to return?"

"It's not that. But you always seemed so cold. I figured you didn't care what was happening"

"I will take it to assume you meant 'cool.' I suppose that's just how I am. My apologies." With a smirk, a theatrical flip of his cape and a spectacular backflip, Vincent soared into the alcove and began to observe the maps on the table therein.

The navigational equipment began to blare error messages, and flash small red lights. Without a crew, Cid was left to rush over to the navigational panels, looking for the source of the error. In the corner, the lifeless figure of Cait Sith sprang up and waved. "Hey everyone! Am I late?"

Barret rolled his eyes. "All hail the President."

Cait Sith's stuffed head turned in Barret's direction. Even through the cat's smiling face, the sincerity shined through. "I am a member of AVALANCHE first, a member of Shinra second."

Barret wiped the sarcastic smile off of his face and gazed at the cat with something akin to affection.

"How about that?" Cid laughed. "Looks like we run the world now. Why didn't you show up yourself, Reeve?"

"I'm evacuating Midgar," Cait Sith said. "We're in the process of moving everyone to the slums. Once the top plate is empty, we'll relocate, try and save as many as possible. As Cait Sith, I'll help you as much as I can." Mog bounded once, as if to remind them of Cait Sith's cutesy air. "I'll try really hard!" The cat cheered.

"I guess that's everyone," Barret said. "Cid, now we can go."

Nanaki shook his head. "Yuffie's still missing."

Barret huffed. "She ain't gonna show up. Least this time she didn't steal our materia. Guess we gotta be thankful for that."

Yuffie dropped from the rafters, where she had been hiding. "How can you say that!? I came all the way here after being seasick as a dog! I didn't go through all that just to leave the best parts to you!"

Cloud smiled. "Welcome back, Yuffie."

Yuffie caught his eye and smiled back. "Gee, Cloud... that's so nice of you to say..." she cocked an eyebrow, "...you sick?"

Cid and Barret laughed. Yuffie nodded to them approvingly. "Well, I'll be in my bunk -- less motion there."

She ran off the bridge, looking her usual shade of airborne-green.

Cloud addressed the group. "Thanks everyone."

Barret laughed. "We didn't come back for yo' spikey-headed ass! Like you said, we've all got something to fight for. We all got plenty. Some things're things we're all fightin' for together."

Nanaki bowed his head. "Although she's not here, she left us with a window of opportunity."

Cid added, "We can't let it go."

Cloud said, "Aeris. She was smiling until the end. We have to do something, or that smile will be all for nothing. Let's all go together, with that memory of Aeris. She should have returned to the Planet by now, Holy needed its summoner to reach the Lifestream... but Aeris is stuck. We have to help her reach the Planet... and then we can finally put her memory to rest."

Cid grabbed the wheel tightly. "Last chance to change your mind. Anyone?"

"The time for flying is now past," Vincent offered. "Our battlefield lies beneath the earth. The gate to tomorrow is not the heavens, but the dark depths of the Planet. No one is turning back when the heavens are on fire."

After a moment, Cloud patted Cid's shoulder. "Counting on you, Captain."

"Yeah, yeah..." Cid grinned. He looked down below the wheel at the two levers by his knees. He scratched at his stubble. Those levers hadn't been in the original blueprints for the ship. He assumed that they were modifications made during construction. The one on the right had a caution light over it and a label that read: Escape Pod. The left lever was unmarked.

Cid considered leaving it alone, but only for a moment. He pulled on the triangular handle, and the _Highwind_ slowed to a stop.

"What was that?" Tifa asked, her first words since being frozen in place.

"Must be an emergency all-stop," Cid wondered, but then the Highwind began to shake.

* * *

Outside, a large panel on the _Highwind_ opened up on either side. The mako engines underneath the rear propellers slid out on rails and stopped when their circular forms were completely outside of the ship.

Out of the rear of the _Highwind_'s main body, a spherical shield slid open and a massive, third engine extended like the barrel of a gun out of the ship. Two smaller jets popped out of the _Highwind_'s tails, on either side of the main jet engine.

As all the propellers slowed to a stop, and the ship began to lose altitude, all five engines exploded with power. White fire and black mist fumed from the back of the airship and it blasted off at unprecedented speeds. The propellers detached from the ship and blew off behind it – some of them were caught in the jets and burned to cinders on their way down. Some crashed onto the Wastelands.

The _Highwind_ blasted over the shore, rocketing over the sea.

"Ergh!" Cid grunted, clutching the wheel. "Who the hell designed this? We'll break apart under all this pressure! I'm losing control"

Will Bleer ran onto the bridge, with a gaggle of operators. They approached Cid.

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought I told you flunkies to go home!"

"Yes, sir!" Bleer grabbed the wheel over Cid's hand. "This is our home! Besides, sir, you can't hope to operate the _Highwind_ by yourself. Not with our modifications!"

"All right, you jokers! Just watch me!"

The crew tried to pry Cid off of the wheels, but the Captain laughed. "Hold me down with everything you got!"

Cid felt at home in the struggling hands of his crew, as the ocean sped by beneath them.

"Geronimo!"


	142. Book 5: Judgement Day

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V  
**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 35**

**Judgement Day**

Bleer rolled the rope ladder off of the guard rail of the passenger deck. It unfurled on its way down and whipped against the top of Gaia's Cliff. The dome of light that had surrounded the Crater was gone – pulverized by the Sister Ray's blast. Now it looked more like its namesake, a bottomless black pit, wider than Midgar. Blue wisps of energy-rich mist seeped from between the rocks and were sucked down into the void - devoured by the creature that rested in the heart of the darkness.

Barret saw that his hand was trembling on the guard rail. "Heh," he said. "Time's got a way of sneakin' up on ya."

Cloud looked around. They were all shaking, but it wasn't from the icy chill of Knowlespole – it was from the nervousness, the anticipation of what was beneath them.

Nanaki put his paws up on the rail. "It's all right," he muttered to himself. "I am Nanaki, son of Seto. I am afraid of nothing... It's all right, all right. I am Nanaki, son of the brave Seto. I am not afraid of Sephiroth..."

They descended the ladder in an arbitrary marching order, with Cloud first and the others behind. Once they had collected at the base of the ladder, Cid gave a nod and Bleer pulled the ladder back up, leaving them huddled together at the top of Gaia's Cliff, with no means of returning to the ship. The eight of them exchanged dubious looks.

Only Barret commented. "Well that seemed damn final."

Cloud looked down at their destination. "There's no right way to get down there," he said. He began to descend the cliffs, boulders and fissures. He occasionally looked around to see where his friends were. They were spread out fairly evenly - his small army. Nanaki leapt boldly from ledge to ledge. Yuffie's whines were swallowed by the cold wind. Tifa and Barret cautiously stepped down together, occasionally helping each other.

Cid was helping Cloud get down off of a particularily large boulder. "Cloud," he said. "You ever see the play 'Loveless'?"

"No," Cloud landed squarely.

"Yeah. I figured someone like you wouldn't be much on plays. They've been running that play since I was a kid, in Sector 8. I used to work in that theatre, so I snuck in to see it. It always put me right to sleep, as expected. But what else was I gonna do during those hours between cleaning up, for and after people? I would always wake up before the end, so I could get to work. The only part of the show I ever really saw was the end. The sister of the lead asks her lover, 'Do you really have to leave?' and the guy says, 'I have to. The people I love are waiting.'

"'I don't understand, not at all,' she says, 'but please take care of yourself.'

"'Of course' says this bozo, 'I'll come back to you. Even if you don't promise to wait. I'll return knowing that you'll be there.'

"I remember thinking, whenever I heard those lines, you know, fuck! What the hell's this guy talking about? He found a lover, didn't he? What's more important than that? But you know... now I'm not so sure... I think I understand."

A piece of rock cracked at Cid's feet, and he shuffled over as it rolled and dropped into the darkness of the crater. He smirked, and they continued down.

Snow and ice lined the edges of the rocks and spikes. Flecks of frozen air occasionally breezed by them on their descent, and their faces were reddened by the cold. They did not shiver, not a one of them.

They saw the same brilliantly coloured crystals they had seen on their journey up Gaia's Cliff. Cloud remembered that they hadn't been too high up when they had seen them. That meant they had descended to ground level – or they were getting close.

Cait Sith tumbled and fell off Mog. Yuffie picked him up and put him back on his mount. "Reeve," she said. "Gotta question for you."

"Don't call me that," Cait Sith said. "I'm Cait Sith. I'm more of a person than Reeve ever was."

Yuffie snorted, "Yeah, well this question is for Reeve. Cait Sith wouldn't understand."

"Right. Sorry."

"You're an Orunai, right?" she watched the cat nod. "When did you figure it out? That you had stopped aging? Did it take a while?"

"It took no time at all," Cait Sith replied. "It felt like dying at first, when my body stopped aging. It felt like I was turning into dust. After that initial shock, I didn't feel any different, but I knew. Somehow I knew that I had stopped."

Yuffie nodded.

"Why?" the cat asked.

"Just a feeling..."

An hour passed.

When they hit a ledge large enough to congregate on, it was so deep and so dark that they could no longer see the top of the cliff or the sky. Everything that was not shrouded in the Crater's blackness faded into a nothing-gray, obscured by their sheer distance.

"The path divides here…." Cloud said, looking at the two paths before them. The first was a winding rocky path leading to the west. Thick stalagmites and columns obscured where it lead. The second, to the east, emanated a blue glow that Vincent stared into – his arms crossed and cape blowing softly.

"Well?" Cid asked. "Which way do you want us to go?"

Cloud thought. "I don't want to split any of us up. But if one path fails, we have to know if the other path works. We can't waste any time... I'll be going west. Cid, you'll go east. Nanaki, west. Yuffie, east. Tifa, west. Vincent, east. Barret, west. Cait Sith... west. Don't any of you die on me... we gotta get through to Sephiroth."

"Wait a minute, Cloud!" Yuffie guffawed. "You're only sending three of us into the east, but you get a party of five in the west? How is that fair?"

Barret and Nanaki held their tongues when Cloud motioned for them to. "Yuffie, you counted wrong. I'm sending you east."

The princess put her hands defiantly on her hips. "What, you're saying that I count as three people?"

"See you at the bottom, Yuffie."

"Wait, really? Is that what you're saying? ...Cloud?" They were already heading into the maze of columns. Yuffie turned to Cid and Vincent. "Well, boys. Time's a wasting!"

* * *

Bugs crawled along the stalactites. Barret inched away from them, his goosebumps visible on his arms.

"Still scared of bugs?" Tifa smiled.

"It's damn cold down here, Tifa. I don't got no sleeves."

"None of us do," Nanaki pointed out.

"Damnit, Nanaki."

After a short while, the path wound downwards until they reached a rock wall, shimmering with mako. Out of a fissure, wisps of green smoke coughed out and upwards. The path split in two. Cloud had figured that it would – a maze of caves was bound to have at least two exits. At least the other team had a relatively linear path to the bottom.

"We're going to have to split again," Cloud sighed. "Nanaki and Cait Sith, you go to the left. Barret, Tifa and I will go to the right."

"Of course, Cloud," Nanaki nodded fervently.

"It was wonderful meeting you all," Cait Sith said, sniffling. "If we don't make it..."

Tifa stomped her foot. "No! None of that. We'll see you on the other side. Cloud gave you an order, now follow it."

Mog almost instinctively turned and bounded down the left path. Nanaki walked after him. Atop Mog, Cait Sith fumbled with the PHS.

"Hello?" he said into it as he rode atop Mog. "Is this thing on?"

"Yes," came Cloud's voice through the PHS. It also echoed through the cave behind Cait Sith.

"Great!"

Nanaki stopped at the edge of water. Mog nearly bounced right into it, but Cait Sith pulled him to a stop. They seemed to have arrived at a sort of swamp – weedy growths wound over rocky paths above the water, but there was no singular path through it. Nanaki dipped his front toe in. "It appears to be warm – another hot spring, but this one's far below the Planet's surface..."

"The temperature isn't what I'm worried about," Cait Sith said. "I don't know how good Mog can float since I filled his hands with rocks... and I'm, well, a robot."

"Well, there isn't a chance in the world that I become your new mount," Nanaki said, "so we're going to have to find some way to get Mog through this."

"...Are you sure there's no way?"

"You're not riding on my head, Cait Sith. I don't care how cute you think it would look. We're getting Mog across this swamp and that's final."

* * *

The east path had led Yuffie, Vincent and Cid to the top of a huge stone column, as tall and wide as a skyscraper. Vincent looked out from their position on an enormous cavern. The ceiling above them opened up in long, luxurious cracks, and the glowing blue light of Spirit Energy pulsed through it. In other corners of the cavern, Spirit Energy pulsed and flowed, in yellows and greens.

There was a veritable valley of cracked stones at the bottom, complete with skulls large enough to fit cities inside of them. Cid was gaping at egg shells as large as houses – cracked open and littering the valley.

The path wound down and around the column. It would thin out and end abruptly, and they would have to scale the side of the stone. Cid used his spear, Vincent his claw, Yuffie her shuriken. When they found a new suitable path, they continued wordlessly, each too deep in thought to converse.

When they reached the bottom, they began to walk through the valley.

"You know," Cid nearly whispered, "We've never actually killed a dragon..."

"We made one turn tail and fly," Yuffie kicked a piece of egg and added, "literally."

"She has a point," Vincent said, "They are mortal creatures."

Cid grunted. "But that was seven of us. How about three versus a hundred babies and a very angry mama? Yuffie, will you stop fucking kicking things? I'd like to get killed by Sephiroth, not before."

"What's the difference?" Yuffie shrugged. "Gonna die anyway."

They reached the edge of a cliff and found a pit full of bones. On the very top, closest to them was the spine and ribcage of some giant creature – larger that the dragon they had seen.

Cid gulped. "The monster wearing that thing on its organs would have crushed Midgar with its goddamn weight alone."

"This seems to be the only place that leads ever downward," Vincent said.

There was a noise behind them, in the distance. Cid stepped hesitantly onto the rib nearest to them. It supported his weight. He waved for them to follow him and jumped onto the next rib. And the next.

They crawled and leapt from bone to bone until Cid found a long spine that acted like a path. They marched along it, as huge ribs passed them like pillars. A huge skull hung beside them. Cid looked at it and broke into a laugh. He turned to Yuffie and Vincent.

"See that skull? These big-ass bones just belong to old fish!"

The bones they were standing on gave out with a booming crack and all three of them were tumbling downwards.

Yuffie's float materia glowed but it didn't slow her fall in time – her head knocked into a huge bone and the glow in her stones snapped out. She fell lifelessly downwards.

Cid felt Vincent's cold claw grab him by his scarf and his fall was slowed – but only slightly.

He hit the rocky ground with a thud and began to cure himself before he even checked for injuries. His leg only hurt momentarily before it popped back into place.

His materia continued to glow as he cured Yuffie – a bloody heap on the ground before them. She didn't wake up, but her arm squished back into its socket. That meant she was alive.

Vincent, who had slowed to a near stop after dropping Cid, finally touched the ground. Cid barked up at him, "So glad you could join us, Mr. Valentine."

Vincent said nothing, but pointed behind Cid. He turned to look.

The rocky ledge they were on continued into a cave, but standing in the mouth was a short robed figure. The lizard creature's head was illuminated by the lantern it held up. Two bulging yellow eyes popped out of the smooth, gray-green skin. A thick, fishy tail poked out the back of the robes and slid along the ground. In the hand that wasn't holding the lantern – almost concealed by the brown robe, was a dagger with a black blade.

"T..." Cid stuttered.

The creature took one slow step towards them.

"T-tonberry. Tonberry!" Cid pointed. "Oh, holy hell! We're dead! We're dead!"

The tonberry took one slow step towards them.

Vincent pulled his gun and fired. The bullets hit the robes, and the creature recoiled as if slapped, but there was no blood.

"No! No use fighting it!" Cid cried, "Gotta run, let's go, come on, let's go!"

"Go where?" Vincent emptied his clip into the creature and tugged at his belt for a new one.

Cid looked up. They wouldn't be able to climb without Yuffie. He looked down at her, and then at the tonberry. "Yuffie, Yuffie, Yuffie... you're gonna owe me big time."

The tonberry took one slow step towards them.

Cid took Yuffie's shuriken and looked at it. He saw materia of various colours, he wasn't sure which did what. "Vincent, keep your distance! That knife is evil incarnate. Fucking hell, the whole damn critter is!"

Vincent was firing and slowly backing away. He recalled Cid's ranting and raving about tonberries. How he said that he would abandon them to flee from it. But Cid wasn't moving from Yuffie's side. He was rummaging through her materia.

The tonberry took one slow step towards them. Vincent was now far behind them, unloading into the tonberries face. Only scratches were made in its thick skin. The tonberry squeaked, but continued its slow march towards Cid and Yuffie.

It was nearly upon them. Cid had no idea which materia to use. It took one last step and reared its arm back, aiming for Yuffie's head.

"No!" Cid leapt up and stepped into the path of the knife.

The black blade stabbed through his pants and into his shin. The clothing around the wound burned away. Cid howled in pain and raised his spear into the air.

Vincent saw hot, black flames rising from where the knife and Cid's leg connected. Cid brought the spear down with all of his might onto the tonberry's rounded head.

The blade didn't get far enough in to do any damage. Cid continued to push down, and the tonberry continued to drive the black blade into his leg.

Cid suddenly noticed the materia in his spear. They were all curative, and augmentative, all except one. He could barely think, the pain was so intense.

He closed his eyes and went into the red stone.

The council with the Knights of the Round was brief. Vincent and Yuffie disappeared into the ether.

The ground around the tonberry began to shake. The tonberry squeaked as it looked around. It disappeared as well.

From the safety of the ether, Cid and Vincent watched the tonberry as it was transported to yet another plane. The air was red and endless, the tonberry floated about, suspended and confused.

From the abyss flew one of the Knights. He brandished an enormous sword.

The Knight stopped right before the tonberry and drew his sword back. The creature tried to move, but it had no ground to walk on. With a great force, the Knight brought the sword upon the tonberry – and the first spattering of black blood flew into the red air.

The first Knight rocketed off as another was flying in headfirst from the distance, behind the tonberry.

The Knight twirled his quarterstaff above its head so quickly it looked like a propeller. When he collided with the creature, the robed lizard was knocked bloodily through the air, until the air faded from red to blue. The Knight continued to fly on.

The third knight was a mage, and from its staff came fire that exploded in huge, round balls of flame.

The tonberry, heavily injured, tumbled through the sky as it became green. Four more Knights flew by it on all sides, drawing blood with sword, axe, lance and a huge ice spell.

The tonberry lost an eye as ice exploded all around it. Another twirling quarterstaff knocked the exploding bits of ice into the abyss, and knocked the tonberry along its path. A mage flew up and raised its staff high. Small meteors flew from the tip of the staff and grew in size until they collided with the creature.

A Knight skewered the tonberry with a lance, drew out and flew off. Another clubbed it with a mace. The biggest Knight yet rose from underneath it, carrying a huge two-sided battle axe. The air seemed to be a swirling cosmic calamity – stars and colours flew by the creature as the axe was brought down, cutting the robes and spraying black blood from underneath it.

The tonberry fell into the darkest part of the abyss as the thirteenth Knight – the largest, in the crimson cloak, flew up in a hiss of steam. Its eyes glowed as it drew a sword from its cloak – the cape blew out behind it as it raised the sword high in the air.

Steam hissed from the head of the last Knight before it brought the sword down. As the blade arced through the abyss, the abyss arced too, and the void, the sky, the Knights and the world were all cut and drawn into the blade.

It came down with such force that it crushed the tonberry, and all planes were drowned in a bright whiteness.

Vincent and Cid landed where they had been standing – the tonberry's knife still burning into Cid's leg. But the tonberry was crumbling into ashes before him. Soon, the blade turned to dust and fell to Cid's feet.

Cid collapsed, clutching at his leg. Vincent ran to him.

"Hold on, Chief," Vincent said. He examined the wound. It was black, and there were black veins visible around it. Vincent watched for a moment. "This will spread, and eventually kill you."

"No shit," Cid winced. "Phoenix down me."

Vincent produced the red potion, and Cid took a sip. The swelling and the infection decreased immediately, but the wound did not heal. Cid shook his head. "The tonberry's knife is pure evil. Damn. Shit. Fuck!"

Vincent examined the wound closely. "It has stopped spreading... for now. I would recommend regular doses of phoenix down to keep the cancer at bay."

"You refer to this as cancer?" Cid almost laughed. "That's damn ironic. Help me up, I think I can walk. You carry the princess. Gotta make the rendez-vous."

* * *

Pollensalta, the snow witch, crawled behind a glimmering rock as Cloud, Barret and Tifa approached. She had smelled them coming from long off, but her legs had stopped working. She wriggled and wormed her way around, refusing to let any more of her body decay. The flesh around her feet was rotting and smelled foul. But she had materia.

The array of boulders and ledges were dazzling. Cloud saw gusts of wind blow diamond dust over the rocky ground like sand. There were shining walls of natural jellied mako, not quite a liquid, not quite air, not quite there.

"It's beautiful," Tifa said.

Cloud felt the slightest magic tug from his right and he reached back to draw his sword.

Pollensalta – who seemed more haggard now than when they had met in the Great Glacier – erupted from behind the stone, flying.

She cackled ghoulishly as she pounced on Cloud, knocking him to the ground.

"_I just want to eat you_!" she screamed.

Teeth fell out of her mouth, and long strings of saliva fell on his face. Cloud summoned his strength and knocked her aside. Barret was at the ready, his hand on the gun-arm trigger.

Pollensalta coughed and gagged on the sparkling stones. Cloud noticed the blackened flesh on her legs.

With a shriek, she was up again and flying at him. Her mouth was in a contorted 'o' shape. Her white hair frayed in all directions.

Barret's blood bullets knocked her aside before she could reach him. She collapsed again on the stone. Cloud grabbed his sword and put the blade by her throat.

"This is familiar," he said. "We danced this same dance the last time I spared your life. I'm not gonna do it again."

"Kill me then, if killing is what you do!" Pollensalta cackled. "You're no Cetra. You're going to kill the calamity and ruin the world. Use your sword. Cut me as you will cut him. Watch his Energy poison the Lifestream."

"She ain't never made any damn sense."

Cloud pressed the blade against the back of her neck – the sharp blade cut through the thin white hairs. "When we left you, we only gave you a fire materia. Where did you get this float one? Kill some more people?"

Pollensalta hummed laughter against the ground. "I feasted on the women and children of Icicle Inn. I devoured the moogles and chocobos. What I could not consume drifted here to be consumed by the calamity. So I come to eat him."

She lifted her palm up behind her, showing Cloud the symbol of the Lifestream. "It shall be branded upon the harbinger of death, and those who oppose him. I oppose him. You do not."

Cloud moved his eyes away from the sigul. It hurt his head. "We've come here to kill him once and for all."

She turned her eye upwards at him, and grinned at him darkly. "You would contaminate our Lifestream with alien Spirit Energy? Then you have learned nothing. Kill me. I would die before I see a world without purity."

Cloud hesitated.

Pollensalta watched the last of her teeth drip to the rocky ground. "What are you waiting for?" Her words slurred from her toothless maw. Her weathered face swayed, sobbing silently. Cloud followed closely with the tip of the sword. Pollensalta closed her eyes. "I've been caged in this body for too long. All I want is to return to the stream. I cannot win against the calamity. There is no hope."

"_KILL ME_!" shrieked the witch. Cloud twitched his arm and lobbed Pollensalta's head off. There was barely any blood left in her body. It oozed out slowly and dribbled to the ground.

"Any idea what that meant, Cloud?" Tifa asked.

"Crazy old woman," Cloud shook his head. "But it makes you wonder. Alien Spirit Energy..."

"If we defeat Sephiroth," Tifa said, "Holy will fix everything. Weapon. Mako. Maybe even us. I'm sure it will get rid of any remnants Sephiroth leaves behind."

Cloud thought, and nodded. "You're right."

"Shit," Barret frowned. "Can't we jes' kick ass and take names? Takin' names, optional. I've heard enough philosophy to last the rest of my life. You guys've been talk-talky talk since the day we met. I haven't known what the goddamn is goin' on this whole time and I've been gettin' along just dandy! Shoot the bad guy, do a victory dance. We're doin' the right thing so let's shut up and get a move on! God _damn_!"

* * *

Nanaki paddled through the water, nearing the next stretch of dry stones.

"Almost there!" cheered Cait Sith from atop his head. Nanaki rolled his eyes but kept paddling. His paws scraped against the reedy glen, and the cat leapt to dry land.

Nanaki was hoisting himself onto the first large rocks. Water dripped from his soaking fur. Cait Sith shook his head. "You gotta go back and get Mog!"

Nanaki paused, his haunches still submerged. "You're joking."

"Without Mog, I won't be of any help at all! You gotta get him, I want to help the team."

Nanaki backed into the water again, shaking from the cold. "This is so demeaning..."

As the beast paddled towards the swamp's entrance, Cait Sith contemplated the exit. A huge collection of green foliage lay in the next cavern. He wouldn't go through without Mog, though! What is a knight without his steed?

Something wiggled on a patch of rocks nearby. Cait Sith looked across the water at an ornate urn, made of clay with fascinating runes on it.

"Hey Nanak'!" Cait Sith called into the swamp, but Nanaki was too far away to hear him. The pot wiggled and shook. Cait Sith knew there had to be something inside of it. Something perhaps dangerous, but perhaps rewarding! The cat rubbed his hands together.

Out of the top of the pot came a purple head, with two long ears and a tuft of red hair. It was some sort of goblin or ghoul, with all yellow eyes and a beak-like nose. It mumbled and looked around.

"Oh boy!" Cait Sith dropped his hands. "Don't hurt me!"

Inside the pot, the goblin shook wildly, and the pot wobbled to and fro. Cait Sith looked back to see Nanaki swimming toward him with Mog on board. Nanaki was bogged down by the weight, not moving quite fast enough.

"Hurry!" Cait Sith called. "There's a monster here!"

The creature tittered and chirped, but did not move from inside the pot. Among its other runes, the urn itself had an embroidered eye on its surface, with red paint highlights. The imp thrashed about inside of it, squeaking and clicking.

The eye on the magic urn suddenly blinked. The exit-way to the next cavern filled itself in with a rock wall.

"This isn't good!" Cait Sith gasped. "I'm helpless here, Nanaki!"

Nanaki arrived and Mog rolled off of him onto the glen. Cait Sith clamoured aboard. "Okay, Mog! Jump over there and let's give that impy what-for!"

With a huge bound, Mog bounced over the thin moat and landed beside the magic pot. "What do you want?" Cait Sith demanded.

"Gimme elixir!" was the only thing the creature said.

"Bite me!" Cait Sith said. Mog raised his fists in the air and brought them down on the goblin. The rocks clubbed the creature and it rattled back into the urn.

Cait Sith looked over to his friend. Nanaki was dripping wet, but the exit had returned. Cait Sith jumped for joy atop Mog. They continued on, leaving the magic urn still wobbling back and forth in the swamp.


	143. Book 5: Jenova Synthesis

**T H E J E N O V A P R O J E C T**

**Book V  
**

**Weapon**

* * *

**Chapter 36**

**Jenova Synthesis**

Cloud, Tifa and Barret crawled through a huge crack in a wall to find themselves in a circular chamber with no ceiling. They looked up first – it seemed to go up forever, perhaps right up and out of the Crater. There was certainly a wind blowing from beneath them to above them.

In the center of the chamber was a massive hole, leading not into blackness, but a smoky greenness. Cloud and Tifa recognized it, it looked like the Lifestream.

"This hole..." Cloud said, "It looks like it leads right into the core of the Planet. Its beating heart."

" 'Bout time you numbskulls showed up," Cid called from across the hole. He had his leg propped up on a stone and sipped slowly out of a flask. Vincent and Yuffie stood sentry to him – all had dirt on their faces, and torn clothing where wounds had healed underneath.

Barret waved his gun-arm. Cloud and Tifa began to circle around the hole to meet them. As they waited for Nanaki and Cait Sith to find their way to them, Cid explained his leg and the constant drinking of phoenix down. "A habit I'll keep to my dying day. Like smoking. Or tea."

"Or swearing," Tifa added.

"Or sexism!" Yuffie grinned.

Nanaki and Cait Sith arrived from another entrance – both looking a little worse for wear. Nanaki greeted them all, and warned, "We've had a day of it. If you see anything that looks like a frog wearing a bathrobe, run the other way."

"Duly noted," Cid rolled his eyes.

The sound of wind took over, and they all stared down into the misty lacuna. There looked like a series of steps leading down, but the steps were all floating boulders, held aloft by the sheer force of wind. Cloud sussed out that they would need to use those to get to the very center, to reach his nemesis. He turned to his friends.

"All right, everyone, let's mosey."

There came a collective sigh from everyone but Cloud. Cid balked. "Seriously? We're about to face a fucking cosmic demon and you say 'let's mosey'? We're about to take a plunge into shit-knows-what to end our heroic lives and you want to 'mosey' there? Come on, Cloud. Say something inspiring, something fitting!"

"All right, uh. Move out!"

Cid shook his head. "Ahh…. You just don't get it."

Cloud leapt into the green abyss towards the first rock, and his seven brothers-in-arms leapt after him.

* * *

There were no more cavern walls. The winds seemed to blow upward with such force that the stone slabs they stood on hovered in place. Surrounding them was green light - Lifestream swirled around them, and away from them as far as the eyes could see. Cloud could see no bottom, only where the shell of where they came from curved away into the green light.

They were in the core of the Planet, where its beating heart pumped out the blood that fueled the world. It was like living in a magic tug - Cloud felt pulled on all sides, and pressed in all at once. As he made the first leap from his floating chunk of rock to the next, he realized that it wasn't wind at all that held them in place. The magic of the Planet's heart simply held them where they were. As Cloud landed, his force moved the enormous rock a few centimetres, before it slowed to a stop.

Cid and Nanaki followed suite, leaping deftly onto the stone. Tifa was about to make the jump, but she stopped herself and cried out, "Cloud, look out!"

Cloud turned with the speed and resolve of a SOLDIER, and was staring at a great white eye. The purple wings and yellow flesh surrounding the eye seemed to only serve as afterthoughts, for the cycloptic orb was so massive, so captivatingly present, that Cloud could barely move. The winged eye flapped once and fixed its gaze on Cloud.

"It's an allemagne!" Cid grunted. "Apparently Jenova ain't the only thing down here!"

Nanaki bared his teeth, but then a great mouth clamped over the allemagne. The enormous jaws crushed the great eye. Cid and Cloud jumped back.

Blood flecked out in all directions, with no real gravitional direction. The The great head of a dragon rose before them, and then its long, scaly neck.

"Go on ahead!" Cid twirled his spear. "You, Tifa and Barret. We'll handle it."

Cloud motioned for Tifa and Barret and they were leaping towards him, unsure of his orders but blindly obedient. Cloud ducked as a great leathery wing swept past him. "Are you sure, Cid?"

"Pfft! It's just a dragon!"

Cid and Nanaki leapt off the rock towards the flying creature - above them, Cloud saw the shuriken flying through the green mist, and heard the sound of Vincent's gunfire.

"We're going ahead," Cloud said to Tifa and Barret. Barret looked back hesitantly, so Cloud posed to him, "Are you concerned for their safety, or ours?"

"Theirs."

A few thick globs of dragon blood floated by them, and Cloud shook his head. "That's great, but this is AVALANCHE we're talking about, not just any group of warriors. Let's warm Jenova up for them."

Barret nodded, smiling sadly. They leapt from their rock onto the next. And the next. And the next. The sounds of the battle above were too distant to pay attention to. The green mist concealed the events above them.

The chunk of the Planet they now stood on was heavily crystallized, with mirror-like squares and spikes jutting out of the rock. The misty energy whirled around them.

"Where are we?" Barret asked.

The sound that came from ahead of them was deafening. Part hiss, part wail, it made the green tendrils of Lifestream quake around them.

When the creature rose over the edge of their rocky platform, it in no way resembled the Jenova parts they had encountered before. There was no trace of humanity in this creature. Jenova's true form was so horrific that they had to strain their eyes to see it all. It was spherical, with hundreds of fleshy, unmoving, wing-like things surrounding it. The Lifestream was being sucked into these things. Cloud realized that they were not wings at all, but mouths. Devouring life itself.

The buster sword sailed from its magnetic sheath and Cloud was off like a bullet towards Jenova. Two tentacles extended from the front and swiped at him, but missed. The sword cut into one of Jenova's horrible mouths. The mouth split down the middle, but no blood came out. Cloud looked at the wound he had created. It wasn't a wound at all, it looked on the inside exactly as it did on the outside. Jenova's cells had collected in one form, but they were still apart, working separately.

Tifa and Barret were paralyzed simply looking at the cosmic horror. It was only when one of Jenova's tentacles lashed Tifa around the midriff that she was compelled to act.

As Tifa ran towards Jenova's spherical centre, the entire creature was alit with flame. Her materia glowed so brightly in her gloves that her fists seemed on fire themselves. She gave two jabs and an uppercut to a flaming mouth, which withered and turned black.

The enormous flame around Jenova flickered out, and a tentacle was coming for her. Tifa threw a fireball. It collided with the tentacle. The tentacle reared back and Cloud was upon it with his sword. He knocked it away from Tifa.

She kicked Jenova and her spiked shoe stabbed itself into Jenova's round body. Tifa jumped up, her foot still inside Jenova. She backflipped, using her force to rip through Jenova.

When she landed, she saw there was no blood. Not on her shoe. Not in the air. Not on Jenova. The other silver tentacle screamed towards her, and she somersaulted out of the way.

Barret was firing constantly, screaming bloody murder at the calamity. Cloud hurled a lightning bolt so powerful it made their hair stand up. The volts snaked around Jenova.

Tifa clutched her stomach, which was losing a lot of blood. Barret reached out his arm and his lone materia glowed. Her stomach sealed itself, and Barret's brow furrowed. He opened his eyes. "Y'better not make me do that again," he grunted. "I hate magic."

The bloody, severed head of a dragon floated by behind Jenova. Cloud didn't look up for its killers, he would know when they arrived.

One of Jenova's tentacles lay limp on the reflective ground. Cloud managed a slight smile. Maybe it didn't look like it, but they were doing something. Some damage. Some success.

Tifa and Barret ran to his side. They charged together towards Jenova.

Barret fired constantly. Tifa hurled fireballs. Cloud pointed ahead with his sword. They screamed in fury together.

Barret's blood bullets had knocked Jenova's other tentacle to the ground. It was only the array of mouths, and the snakelike humanoid form on the front of the calamity – like a ship's figurehead. Cloud's sword cut into the flesh of the womanly figure. Tifa and Barret flanked him, throwing their spells and artillery at the mouths.

Jenova remained intact. No cells parted from her. Where she had been singed, her cells were black and unmoving. Where the sword had cut her, they hung uselessly. But they did not separate. This gave Cloud an immeasurable amount of hope.

But then something began to happen.

All of the dead cells were swallowed by the mouths – replaced by them. As it happened. Jenova's form began to change.

The calamity drew itself away as it consumed its dying tentacles. Its form was shifting, altering. Cloud wasn't sure if it was actually happening, or one of Jenova's grand illusions. Whatever the case, it meant that they had hurt her enough to get her to back off.

Vincent and Nanaki landed on the platform. Yuffie, Cait Sith and Cid landed shortly after.

Jenova continued to hover out of their range (Barret and Vincent fired). She looked like she was becoming a cocoon of a sort. Suddenly, they all felt an immense magic tug from the heart of the calamity.

No sooner did they feel it that they were knocked over by a shockwave. The platform that they were on broke apart by the very force of Jenova's pulse. Chunks of mirror-like crystals flew off into the windy Planet's core.

They fell off the platform, all of them, hurled through an endless sea of green and white. All platforms long behind them. They fell and fell until the green faded to black, and they were lost in shadows.


	144. IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

Hi.

Some of you may be wondering where I've been for the last year or so. Let me tell you!

As you may know, I've been working on a new draft of the Jenova Project to replace the one I wrote as a teenager. Now that I'm in my late 20s and a professional writer, I figured I owed this story better than what I was able to give it ten years ago. Then, about six months ago, something incredible happened!

I was approached by a team of CG artists, producers and directors, asking me to write Final Fantasy VII: The Web Series.

This has been without a doubt the coolest project I've ever worked on. And it is protected under the same rights as fanfiction, what's more, we have the music rights and the blessing of Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy VII.

The problem is, even with everyone on the project volunteering, we still need to raise $400,000. Google "ff7 kickstarter" for more info. Weheave until August 20th to make this a reality

I haven't given up on the Jenova Project though. After the series is done shooting (hopefully this fall) I'll devote actual attention to getting The Jenova Project back on track and new and shiny on here.

Thanks for reading!

Xander (Mr. Ite)


End file.
